Debate In Australia Research Articles

“Complete Strangers Can Get through Your Front Door”: The Carly Ryan Murder, Teen Girls and the Internet in 2000s Australia

ABSTRACT On 21 February 2007, 15-year-old Carly Ryan’s body was found in the waters at Port Elliot in South Australia. A highly public investigation and trial followed, during which it was revealed that 48-year-old Melburnian man Garry Francis Newman had used a false online identity to seduce and lure Ryan to her death. In its coverage, the Australian media scrutinised Ryan’s online profiles and dramatised the dangers that cyberspace posed to young women. Examining these reports reveals wider anxieties over the internet blurring the boundary between public and private—a boundary historically assumed to keep young women safe. Journalists presented the online world as being both entirely public and inappropriately hidden from adult view. Cyberspace was framed as a place where young women could “act out” (self-sexualise) outside parents’ control and invite the “wrong” kind of attention. In this article, I contextualise this coverage within historic fears about stranger danger. I demonstrate how journalists drew from the contemporary debate in Australia surrounding the sexualisation of children in media—and its gendered nature. Further, I argue that the Australian media framed the internet as disrupting the idea of the family home as a safe haven and upsetting traditional parent–child relationships.

Plan B?: Reconsidering Australian Security in the event of a post US alliance era

ABSTRACT The rise of China combined with a growing “America First” approach to US foreign policy has generated a debate in Australia about the status of the alliance with the United States. This article contributes to this debate by exploring what a Plan B, for Australian security outside the alliance, might look like. It assesses existing scholarship on the subject, highlighting how recent arguments that Australia can “go it alone” are fundamentally flawed as they fail to address requirements to protect the economic and human security of Australians. The article goes on to examine why it is still necessary to consider a Plan B, and what Australia’s core national interests are. It emphasises the importance of protecting the lives and livelihoods of Australians, as opposed to the pure focus on the territorial defence of Australia that has marked out much of the existing literature. This leads the article to conclude that, outside the US alliance, Australia would need to rely on a more holistic concept of security, and less on a military approach. It concludes by putting forward suggestions for how Australia could provide itself with security outside the US alliance, primarily through building resilience and adopting a form of neutrality.

Archaeological Insights into Asymmetrical Warfare on the Queensland Frontier

Historiographic debate in Australia over whether or not the asymmetrical conflicts between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in the colonial period can be characterized as “war” remains unresolved, largely because most such events did not involve the traditional military. In this regard the situation in Queensland merits special attention, since much of the conflict in that colony from 1848 onward was conducted by a particular government paramilitary organization: the Queensland Native Mounted Police (NMP). In trying to understand the operations of this force, we adopt KOCOA terrain analysis, coupled with the forensic analysis of firing pin impressions on discharged Snider cartridge primers, to visualize how features around NMP camps affected and contributed to the use of firearms within these spaces. Given the well-recognized nexus between tactics of hunting and warfare, we argue that it is through the lens of training (both as hunters and soldiers) that we can best understand the Indigenous troopers of the NMP, as well as the strategies and tactics applied by the Queensland NMP in the context of the asymmetrical violence that characterized the Australian frontier.

Women's perspectives of direct pharmacy access to oral contraception.

Most oral contraception options require a doctor's prescription in Australia; however, there are many models of direct pharmacy access that have been successfully implemented internationally. Despite these advancements, the most preferable OTC model for consumers is yet to be explored in the international literature, and no prior studies have determined the potential benefits of implementation in Australia. The aim of this study was to explore women's perspectives and preferences for models of direct pharmacy access to oral contraceptive pills (OCPs). Women participants (n=20) aged 18-44 residing in Australia were recruited via posts on a community Facebook page and participated in semi-structured telephone interviews. Interview questions were guided by Andersen's Behavioural Model of Health Service Use. Data were coded and thematically analysed in NVivo 12, using an inductive process to develop themes. Participants' perspectives and preferences in relation to direct pharmacy OCP access were characterised by: (1) the importance of autonomy, accessibility and decreasing stigma; (2) confidence and trust in pharmacists; (3) health and safety concerns regarding OTC access; and (4) the need for varying OTC models to cater for both experienced and first-time users. Women's perspectives and preferences regarding direct pharmacy OCP access can be used to inform potential pharmacy practice advancements in Australia. While direct pharmacy OCP access is at the nexus of heated political debate in Australia, the potential benefits of being able to access OCPs directly from a pharmacist are evidently salient to women. Australian women's preferred OTC availability models were identified.

Passivity and exclusion: media power in the construction of the aged-care debate in Australia and Malaysia

ABSTRACT This article explores relationships between media power and older people in Western and non-Western settings, utilising the examples of Australia and Malaysia. Drawing on Fairclough’s three-dimensional critical discourse analysis and a dataset of articles from Australian and Malaysian newspapers, it reveals that despite differences in journalistic practices in the two countries there is a common thread of disparate representation of voices of older people and elites in news about older people. This demonstrates the exercise of power by journalists – and the influence of broader media and socio-political environments – in sustaining and reproducing social inequalities, including opportunities for people to have their stories and issues portrayed fairly and accurately. While the lack of critical engagement by Malaysian journalists can be linked to social norms and ideas of Asian-based development journalism, the absence of critical engagement from the Australian news media can be seen as conflicting with their Fourth Estate watchdog role.

Controversial issues in the Australian educational context: dimension of politics, policy and practice

ABSTRACT In recent years, a number of controversies related to climate change, racism and Black Lives Matter, and gender and sexual diversity have characterised public debate in Australia about politically charged content in schools. This paper explores one jurisdiction’s “Controversial Issues in Schools” policy through three broad areas of discussion. We begin by analysing the current social and political context in Australia at both a state and national level to consider how debates around controversial issues in schools have been utilised to exploit both existing and emerging cultural divisions. We then examine some of the philosophical claims central to the “Controversial Issues in Schools” policy before considering a single case of teacher deliberation in relation to the policy. The paper argues that the policy does little to support teachers in bringing up controversial issues in the classroom particularly given the ways teacher conduct in relation to controversial issues is treated in public discourse. Engaging with controversial issues as a matter of teacher conduct fails to acknowledge the epistemic, ethical, and political nature of controversial issues and teachers’ deliberation in relation to such concerns and constructs teacher conduct as a central concern.

The hammer and the nail: The triple lock of methods, realities and institutional contexts in Australian research on nightlife violence.

There is considerable public and policy debate in Australia about measures to reduce violence associated with alcohol and young people in the night-time economy. Though overrepresented in violence, the role of men and masculinities is rarely explicitly addressed in policy responses to such violence, which rest on a narrow range of mainly quantitative research and recommendations favouring blanket alcohol restrictions. Drawing on John Law and colleagues' account of the 'double social life of methods' (2011), we analyse interviews conducted with Australian quantitative researchers about the role of gender in such violence. According to Law etal., methods inhabit and reproduce particular ecologies and reflect the concerns of those who advocate them. From this 'triple lock' of methods, realities, and institutional advocacies and contexts emerges particular modes of knowing. Participants described a research ecology in which the authority of quantitative research methods emerged in relation to an imperative to respond in a 'timely' and 'pragmatic' fashion to public policy debates, and prevailing governmental and policy priorities and public framings of violence. Though participants frequently acknowledged the role of men in violence, these arrangements sustain taken-for-granted assumptions about the properties and effects of alcohol while displacing men and masculinities from policy attention. The political consequences of these arrangements demand the development of innovative policy responses and new modes of knowing that make visible the gendering of violence.

Act now: raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility

ABSTRACT There has been a long-standing debate throughout Australia about the age at which a child should be subjected to criminal proceedings for wrongful behaviour. In February 2019, an Attorneys-General Working Group was formed with the task of reviewing the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) and making recommendations for reform across Australia. So far, no decision has been made about whether and to what age the MACR should be raised. Now individual jurisdictions are pushing for change rather than waiting for a uniform national approach. This article examines the ongoing debate in Australia and considers what reforms should be undertaken in relation to the MACR. It endorses states and territories acting individually to raise the MACR to at least 14 but preferably higher. It also proposes that if the MACR is raised only to 12 or 14 there is a need for doli incapax or some other defence for older children.

A vision of a One Health system for Australia: on the need to rethink our health system.

A vision of a One Health system for Australia: on the need to rethink our health system.

Calamity or commodity? Conceptualising security in the nuclear debate in Fraser’s Australia

This article examines conceptualisations of security in the debate over uranium mining and export in Fraser’s Australia. Drawing together archives from the Fraser government, the Movement Against Uranium Mining, and newspaper coverage, the article demonstrates that pro- and anti-uranium groups held conflicting visions of (in)security: Fraser saw the exploitation of natural resources as an opportunity to strengthen Australia’s geopolitical influence, while anti-uranium activists feared the risks that mining and export posed to the environment, Indigenous communities, public health and the survival of the planet. Tracing these competing visions of security through key developments in the nuclear debate in Australia, the article demonstrates that Fraser maintained his uranium policy by avoiding the security concerns of the anti-uranium movement. Nonetheless, the debate marked an early shift in the broader reformulation of narrow ideas of ‘national security’ to more expansive understandings of the term.

LGBTQ+ non-discrimination and religious freedom in the context of government-funded faith-based education, social welfare, health care, and aged care

Anti-discrimination laws around the world have explicitly protected LGBTQ+ people from discrimination with various levels of exceptions for religion. Some conservative religious organisations in Australia are advocating to be allowed to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people in certain organisations they manage. The political debate in Australia has focused on religiously affiliated organisations that provide services in education, social welfare, health care, and aged care. We argue that religious exceptions allowing discrimination should be narrow because they cause considerable harm, reinforce, disadvantage and because LGBTQ+ people are deserving of respect and rights. We draw on a national representative survey to demonstrate that the views of some conservative religious lobby groups do not represent the views of the majority of religious people in Australia or the views of the majority of Christian people.

Attitudes and Arguments in the Voluntary Assisted Dying Debate in Australia: What Are They and How Have They Evolved Over Time?

This paper provides a broad discussion about voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in Australia. The discussion examines the history of the VAD debate in Australia and whether public support for VAD and the arguments that have provided the framework for the VAD debate have evolved over time. This seems a prudent time to have such a discussion, given the very recent rush by all Australian states to bring about or attempt to bring about VAD legislation. This rush, inexplicably perhaps, comes after decades of attempted but failed progress in the legalisation of VAD in Australia. The authors attempted to undertake a systematic literature review for this paper, but the paucity of academic research and the lack of consistent terminology in this area made such a search untenable. Instead, the authors examined parliamentary documentation and then widened the search via the sources found within this documentation. The examination of available data showed that VAD has enjoyed significant public support from Australians over time and that the arguments in the VAD debate in Australia have been consistent over time.

Australian debate of the China question: the COVID-19 case

ABSTRACT Debate within Australia regarding the bilateral relationship with China is complex, contentious and often lacks clarity. Informed by basic international relations theory, we identify two dividing lines within this debate. First, whether understanding China’s behaviour is most effectively done through a unitary actor framework, or whether it is essential to look inside the ‘black box’ of the Chinese party-state. Second, whether one is more concerned about the ‘Thucydides trap’ or ‘Munich’—that is, are the consequences of an overreaction or an underreaction more concerning when interpreting China’s intentions and responding to perceived threats. These dividing lines generate four ideal-type policy viewpoints that we label Balancers, Hedgers, Engagers and Reformers, and apply in the Australian context. We then overlay our framework onto the public debate in Australia, selecting a specific bounded case study: commentary and analysis concerning China’s behaviour throughout the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, in particular responding to Australia’s call for an international inquiry. Our objective is to progress an often circular debate by offering an accessible frame that clarifies and synthesises fundamental disagreements.

COVID-19 and the affective politics of congestion: an exploration of population density debates in Australia

ABSTRACT This essay considers the post-COVID-19 debates over the level of migration to Australia to understand how the rhetoric of ‘affective congestion’ which is used for population management has changed. On the one hand, it demonstrates that the concerns of white bodies regarding congestion are taken more seriously by the political and media mainstream than those of new migrants. On the other, it shows that COVID-19 is bringing the injustice of this approach to light, as seen in the case of the harsh lockdown imposed on public housing estates in Melbourne. Finally, it argues for population density planning that uses the ‘mobility justice’ framework and makes a case for developing affective capacities in addition to building infrastructure.

How Collective-Action Failure Shapes Group Heterogeneity and Engagement in Conventional and Radical Action Over Time

Extensive research has identified factors influencing collective-action participation. However, less is known about how collective-action outcomes (i.e., success and failure) shape engagement in social movements over time. Using data collected before and after the 2017 marriage-equality debate in Australia, we conducted a latent profile analysis that indicated that success unified supporters of change (n = 420), whereas failure created subgroups among opponents (n = 419), reflecting four divergent responses: disengagement (resigned acceptors), moderate disengagement and continued investment (moderates), and renewed commitment to the cause using similar strategies (stay-the-course opponents) or new strategies (innovators). Resigned acceptors were least inclined to act following failure, whereas innovators were generally more likely to engage in conventional action and justify using radical action relative to the other profiles. These divergent reactions were predicted by differing baseline levels of social identification, group efficacy, and anger. Collective-action outcomes dynamically shape participation in social movements; this is an important direction for future research.

The Distribution of People and Employment in Metropolitan Commutersheds: The Impact on Rural Housing Markets

ABSTRACT The concentration of population in the major metropolitan cities has again become prominent in public debate in Australia. Politicians and commentators have called for an increase in the population of rural areas by improving commuter access to metropolitan employment through infrastructure investments that facilitate commuting from regional places of residence to metropolitan places of work, referred to as metro-bound commuters. This article investigates the impact of commuter-based population growth on rural communities, and particularly housing markets. Increasing rural housing markets indicate a process of gentrification, calling into question policies that promote population redistribution not underpinned by rural employment growth.

Historical Lessons for Australia's Foreign Policy: The Case of British EEC Membership

The Australian Government's attitudes towards major events in international politics such as the UK's entry into the European Economic Community (EEC) in the past and Brexit negotiations today, carry greater weight than previously assumed in political science literature. Australia was critical of the EEC (now called the European Union, EU) in the early 1960s, when its then most important trading partner, the United Kingdom (UK) first applied for membership. Australia was ill-prepared to deal with the repercussions from Britain's entry into the EU, as Australian foreign policy was heavily influenced by local as well as international anti-EEC attitudes. This paper will analyse political debates in Australia during the 1960s and early 1970s with reference to parliamentary Hansard records and newspaper articles in order to suggest a new framework for Australian foreign policy analysis.

Australian Debate of the China Question: The COVID-19 Case

Debate within Australia regarding the bilateral relationship with China is complex, contentious and often lacks clarity. Informed by basic international relations theory, we identify two dividing lines within this debate. First, whether understanding China’s behaviour is most effectively done through a unitary actor framework, or whether it is essential to look inside the “black box” of the Chinese party-state. Second, whether one is more concerned about the “Thucydides trap” or “Munich”—that is, are the consequences of an overreaction or an underreaction more concerning when interpreting China’s intentions and responding to perceived threats. These dividing lines generate four ideal-type policy viewpoints that we label Balancers, Hedgers, Engagers and Reformers, and apply in the Australian context. We then overlay our framework onto the public debate in Australia, selecting a specific bounded case study: commentary and analysis concerning China’s behaviour throughout the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, in particular responding to Australia’s call for an international inquiry. Our objective is to progress an often circular debate by offering an accessible frame that clarifies and synthesises fundamental disagreements.

From Toilet Paper Wars to #ViralKindness?

By examining seemingly contradictory reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic and relating these to the basic income debate in Australia, this article explores the potential that the socio-economic crisis provoked by COVID-19 presents for a transformation of welfare systems. Drawing on ethnographic observation, the article describes the emergence of grassroots forms of solidarity in response to the pandemic. Within the context of the increasing hardship experienced by Australians, ongoing failures of existing welfare systems, and inadequate government responses to COVID-19, the groundswell of solidarity may coalesce with increasing support for a basic income, creating a conjunctural movement that propels radical social transformation.

Displacements of gender: Research on alcohol, violence and the night-time economy

‘Alcohol-related violence’, especially among young people participating in the night-time economy (NTE), has been the subject of intense public and policy debate in Australia. Previous sociological work has highlighted the relationship between men, masculinities and violence, but this relationship has received little attention in the research that tends to garner policy attention. In this article, we focus on the treatment of gender in Australian quantitative research on alcohol and violence in the NTE. We identify four ‘gendering practices’ through which such research genders alcohol and violence: de-gendering alcohol and violence through obscuring gender differences; displacing men and masculinities via a focus on environmental, geographical and temporal factors; rendering gender invisible via methodological considerations; and addressing gender in limited ways. We argue that these research practices and the policy recommendations that flow from them reproduce normative understandings of alcohol effects and lend support to gendered forms of power.