Royal Commission Report Research Articles

Lessons from the 2019/2020 ‘Black Summer Bushfires’ in Australia

The widespread and massive bushfires in Australia in 2019 and 2020, known as the ‘Black Summer Bushfires’ resulted in extensive devastation with severe economic, social, environmental and political impacts, and tragically, loss of human lives and wildlife. Some of these impacts extended well after the bushfires to the medium and long term. Australia does have a system for disaster risk prevention, mitigation and management in place, including legal and policy instruments, and a range of capacity building and risk communication measures, and thus different steps were undertaken to manage the bushfires at the local, regional and national levels. There were also a number of key stakeholders involved including firefighting agencies and emergency services agencies, and public, private and civil society organizations, and importantly, the community with abundant volunteer initiatives evidencing strong social capital. However, despite the strong institutional structure and community social capital, various gaps and challenges were evident at different stages – before, during and after the bushfires – especially stemming from the uncertainty posed by climate change; particularly, recovery and rebuilding has proven highly challenging and even after two years recovery has not been achieved for many people, who need to rely on the social capital of their neighbours and community to cope with the difficult circumstances that they are confronted with. The Royal Commission report, which was produced as an inquiry after the bushfires provided recommendations for future policy and practice and in this paper a set of recommendations that are consistent with the report are presented. The future of bushfire risk reduction and management would need to be linked to both climate change mitigation and adaptation, with stronger support for community social capital.

Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls with Different End Configurations for Seismic Design

The Canterbury earthquake royal commission report highlighted that, despite being well-detailed, several reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls did not achieve their anticipated ductility capacities. In order to enhance the performance of such walls during future seismic events, the report recommended the use of concentrated and confined rebars at the wall toes coupled with high reinforcement ratios within the wall to initiate secondary cracks and extend the inelastic wall regions, thus minimizing the corresponding seismic demands. In this respect, the current study evaluates the seismic performance of RC walls with flanged and boundary element configurations compared with their typical rectangular counterparts, when different reinforcement ratios are incorporated. Specifically, the study presents a detailed analysis of six three-story half-scaled RC shear walls tested under quasi-static cyclic loading representing different seismic demands. The six walls were originally tested in two phases, where each phase had three different wall types (i.e., rectangular, flanged, and boundary element configurations). Walls in both phases had the same overall dimension and cross-section area; however, Phase II walls had 2.4 times the vertical reinforcement ratios used in Phase I walls. Following a summary of the experimental program and results, the current study presents the analytical results of the walls in terms of their load-strain relationships, curvature profiles, stiffness degradation trends, energy dissipation capacities, and equivalent viscous damping ratios. A comparison between the theoretical and experimental curvatures is also presented for the test walls at different drift levels. The results show that flanged and boundary element walls had low yield curvatures and high ultimate curvatures which resulted in enhancing their displacement ductility capacities. Flanged and boundary element walls also exhibited higher stiffness degradation rates when compared with their rectangular counterparts, leading to reduced seismic demands. Moreover, flanged and boundary element walls with high vertical reinforcement ratios (1.58%–1.63%) had higher energy dissipation capacities than their counterparts with low vertical reinforcement ratios (0.66%–0.69%). However, rectangular walls with low vertical reinforcement ratios (1.17%) showed higher ultimate curvature capacities than rectangular walls with high vertical reinforcement ratios (2.80%). Overall, the results demonstrate that future editions of relevant design standards (e.g., CSA A23.3 and ACI 318-19) should consider assigning different seismic design parameters (e.g., ultimate compressive strains, equivalent viscous damping ratios, and ductility-related modification factors) for RC shear walls based on their end configurations that can significantly alter the performance of such walls under seismic events.

Service integration: The perspective of Australian alcohol and other drug (AOD) nurses.

The recently released Victorian Mental Health Royal Commission report has recommended a shift to integrated treatment, defined as treatment for alcohol and substance use disorders and mental ill health occurring in parallel, rather than distinct systems catering to each need. However, little work has sought to determine the perceptions of nurses working in alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment towards integrating with mental health services. In this study, we explore the perspectives of specialist AOD nurses towards the integration of mental health and AOD treatment services. Secondary analysis of semi‐structured interviews with Australian specialist AOD nurses (n = 46) conducted as part of a wider workforce study in 2019. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and reported using the COREQ guidelines. Of the interviews analysed, six were AOD nurses working in an Australian state that had recently undergone service integration; however, many participants expressed perceptions of service integration. Two key themes are reported in this paper: (i) perceptions of service integration, where AOD nurses participating in our study were concerned that integration would result in the model of care they worked under being replaced by a mental health‐based model that was felt to be highly risk averse, and (ii) experiences of service integration. Concerns about the focus of care as well as the complexity of care differing between the two services demonstrated a contrast in both philosophical approaches to work with consumers and legislative difference in voluntary versus compulsory care provision.

The Role and Regulation of Child Factory Labour During the Industrial Revolution in Australia, 1873–1885

AbstractThis study investigates child factory labour in Victoria, the most populous and industrialized colony in Australia in the second half of the nineteenth century. Three sources of primary data are analysed: Royal Commission reports, texts of bills and statutes, and parliamentary and public debates. The findings inform current academic debates by enhancing understanding of the role played by child workers during industrialization. They show that children were low-cost substitutes for adult males and that child labour was central to ongoing industrialization. A wide range of industries and jobs is identified in which children were employed in harsh conditions, in some instances in greater proportions than adults. Following the reports of the Royal Commission, the parliament of Victoria recognized a child labour problem serious enough to warrant regulation. While noting that circumstances were not as severe as in Britain, it passed legislation in 1885 with provisions that offered more protection to children than those in the British factory act of 1878. The legislation also offered more protection than factory laws in other industrializing colonies and countries. The findings throw light on the character of colonial liberal reformers in a wealthy colony who sought to create a better life for white settlers by adopting policies of state intervention.

A Retrospective on the Woodhouse Report: The Vision, the Performance and the Future

The following is a revised version of the second Woodhouse Memorial Lecture given at both the Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Auckland in September 2018. It traces the history and policy iterations of New Zealand's accident compensation scheme that flowed from the 1967 Woodhouse Report (the Report), a Royal Commission report chaired by Sir Owen Woodhouse. It discusses the features of the Report and the determination it showed to get rid of the common law action for damages for personal injury. It analyses the degree to which the Report was not followed in the journey it took through the political decision-making system. There is a critical analysis of the delivery of benefits, the administration of the scheme and its financing. The performance in accident prevention and rehabilitation is briefly covered. The method of settling disputes in the scheme has seen an unwelcome return to legalism. The lecture concludes with a strong plea to remove the anomalies created by the accident compensation scheme between the victims of accident who receive earnings related-benefit and those who are dealt with under the Social Security Act 2018 under which they receive flat rate benefits. The lecture concludes with some lessons for policymakers.

A Retrospective on the Woodhouse Report: The Vision, the Performance and the Future

The following is a revised version of the second Woodhouse Memorial Lecture given at both the Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Auckland in September 2018. It traces the history and policy iterations of New Zealand's accident compensation scheme that flowed from the 1967 Woodhouse Report (the Report), a Royal Commission report chaired by Sir Owen Woodhouse. It discusses the features of the Report and the determination it showed to get rid of the common law action for damages for personal injury. It analyses the degree to which the Report was not followed in the journey it took through the political decision-making system. There is a critical analysis of the delivery of benefits, the administration of the scheme and its financing. The performance in accident prevention and rehabilitation is briefly covered. The method of settling disputes in the scheme has seen an unwelcome return to legalism. The lecture concludes with a strong plea to remove the anomalies created by the accident compensation scheme between the vicitims of accident who receive earnings related-benefit and those who are dealt with under the Social Security Act 2018 under which they receive flat rate benefits. The lecture concludes with some lessons for policymakers.

The Impact of International Reports on the Australian Royal Commission’s Report into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse with Regard to the Catholic Church

In December 2017, the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse published its 17-volume report. Books 1 and 2 of Volume 16 were focused on religious institutions, especially on the Catholic Church where the incidence of child abuse was highest. In its methodology, findings and recommendations, the Royal Commission was heavily influenced by 17 prior government- and Church-sponsored inquiries in Belgium, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, the UK and the US. This article describes in some detail these reports, and assesses through a quantitative citation analysis the impact of these major international reports on the work of the Royal Commission, especially the eight most influential. They added to the credibility, moral authority and depth of the Royal Commission report.

Towards a Genealogy of Reconciliation in Canada

Since the 1990s, there has been a global proliferation of discourses of political reconciliation. In Canada, major debates regarding the place of Quebec and Indigenous peoples in the federation have seen the concept of reconciliation being mobilized by different groups to address these key constitutional relationships. This is a complex development, as reconciliation is understood and used in widely varying ways depending on the political projects different actors seek to advance. While much recent scholarship has critically analyzed the divergence between Indigenous and state conceptions of reconciliation, there has been little comparative analysis that considers the deployment of the concept in both constitutional relationships. Many gaps also remain in accounting for the emergence of reconciliation as a political concept in Canada and in considering the implications of framing constitutional relationships through this ambiguous and widely contested term. This article addresses these gaps by drawing on an analysis of royal commission reports and Supreme Court decisions to explore the character of early appearances of the term as a political concept and to provide an initial sketch of the role the concept plays in Canadian politics by comparing its use with respect to constitutional relationships with Quebec and with Indigenous peoples.

Canada 150: Canadian Social Scientists and the Making of Public Policy since Confederation

Since the 1890s, Canadian social scientists have been actively involved in the making of public policy as decision makers (both as elected officials and as senior public servants); as expert advisers (notably through Royal Commission reports and studies), at both federal and provincial levels; and as shapers of and participants in public discourse. The history of this involvement reflects the expansion and transformation of the scholarly community, as the discipline of political economy, pursued by a handful of scholars at a few universities, divided into multiple social sciences, with many more practitioners, and as close interaction with US social scientists came to displace the influence of the British political economy (e.g., Beveridge, Keynes, the Fabians) and, in Quebec, of the papal social encyclicals.

Paradise Lost? The Payment of British Authors in 19th Century Americaas Copyright Wilderness

The payment by American publishers to British authors during the mid-19th century, when the works of British authors did not have any American copyright protection, has been presented as evidence that authors can be well paid without the need of copyright protection. The empirical support for this claim putatively comes from a UK Royal Commission Report published in 1878. In this paper I examine the evidence put forward in the Royal Commission Report, as well as data on payments to British Authors from a leading American publisher during the mid-1800s. This reexamination of the Royal Commission Report, combined with the examination of publishing costs, lead to a conclusion that most British authors were not paid by American publishers and the majority of those who were paid received considerably less than they would have received under copyright. Further, two additional historical factors, a cartel-like agreement among leading American publishers and an American market that was larger than the British market, make the instances of American payments to British authors an overestimate of the likely author payments that would exist in a world without copyright.

Experimental evaluation of the seismic performance of reinforced concrete structural walls with different end configurations

The Canterbury Earthquake Royal Commission report (2013) showed that cantilever reinforced concrete (RC) walls failed at a lower ductility capacity than expected due to a plasticity concentration region within a very limited height near the location of the primary cracks at the base of the walls. The New Zealand Standards (NZS 3101) (2006) [2] and the Canadian design standards (CSA A23.3-14) (2014), adopt the same capacity design approaches for RC walls design, with both standards specifying a minimum vertical reinforcement ratios (ρv%) of 0.25% for RC walls. Subsequently, the current study was conducted to study the seismic performance of RC walls with different vertical reinforcement ratios and cross sectional configurations. In this paper, six half-scaled RC structural walls were constructed and tested under quasi-static displacement controlled cyclic loading. The walls had three different cross sectional configurations; rectangular, flanged and boundary elements and were tested with specific design characteristics selected to evaluate and compare the wall ductility capabilities. In this respect, wall ductility can be defined as the ability of the walls to undergo inelastic deformations with no/low strength degradation, which is essential in Seismic Force Resisting Systems (SFRS) as it is not economically feasible to design SFRS to behave elastically under seismic loadings. So the ductility quantification of the structural walls used were ductility ratio between the intended displacements with the yield displacement. Based on the test results, the ultimate drift at 20% ultimate strength degradation varied between 0.9% and 1.6% and the ultimate level displacement ductility (μΔ0.8u), ranged approximately between 4.0 and 6.0. Although the flanged walls and the walls with boundary elements were designed to develop almost the same capacity as that of the rectangular walls, the seismic performance of the former wall type was found to be superior to that of their rectangular counterparts with respect to both the ultimate displacement capacity and ductility level. Moreover, using the flanges and the boundary elements walls resulted in approximately 30% reduction of the vertical reinforcement compared to that of the rectangular walls when designed to resist the same lateral loads while carrying identical gravity loads. In addition to gaining insights on the response of walls with boundary elements, the results indicated that structural walls with low vertical reinforcement ratio can experience reduced ductility as indicated in the Canterbury Commission Report.

Exponential random graph modeling of emergency collaboration networks

Effective response to bushfires requires collaboration involving a set of interdependent complex tasks that need to be carried out in a synergistic manner. Improved response to bushfires has been attributed to how effective different emergency management agencies carry out their tasks in a coordinated manner. Previous studies have documented the underlying relationships between collaboration among emergency management personnel on the effective outcome in delivering improved bushfire response. There are, however, very few systematic empirical studies with a focus on the effect of collaboration networks among emergency management personnel and bushfire response. Given that collaboration evolves among emergency management personnel when they communicate, in this study, we first propose an approach to map the collaboration network among emergency management personnel. Then, we use Exponential Random Graph (ERG) models to explore the micro-level network structures of emergency management networks and their impact on performance. ERG Models are probabilistic models presented by locally determined explanatory variables and that can effectively identify structural properties of networks. It simplifies a complex structure down to a combination of basic parameters such as 2-star, 3-star, and triangle. By applying our proposed mapping approach and ERG modeling technique to the 2009 Royal Commission Report dataset, we construct and model emergency management response networks. We notice that alternative-k-star, and alternative-k-two-path parameters of ERG have impact on bushfire response. The findings of this study may be utilized by emergency managers or administrators for developing an emergency practice culture to optimize response within an emergency management context.

Data and Diversity in the Canadian Justice Community

This study explores the importance of quantitative and qualitative data in the development of more inclusive policies of recruitment and appointment in the justice community. Since at least the Abella Equality in Employment Royal Commission Report in 1984, the link between obtaining and analyzing data on recruitment and achieving greater inclusion has been well-documented and oft-repeated. The authors focus on the apparent resistance on the part of governments (in the case of judicial appointments) and private as well as public legal employers (in the case of legal recruitment) to keep, track and publish demographic data on who seeks these opportunities and who is selected for them. While the rhetoric around diversity and inclusion is now pretty much universally in favour of a judicial and legal community that reflects the society and communities they serve, opinions continue to differ sharply on the means of achieving this goal. Many view the focus on numbers and data alone as myopic, and as likely to obscure as reveal the reality of diversity in the judiciary and legal profession. Others are simply worried about efforts to manipulate such data, the impact of ranking, identifying “good” and “bad” firms and organizations in simplistic ways, and so forth. In other words, some fear the focus on data may in fact undermine the goal of a more inclusive justice community. The authors disagree. The authors’ view is that, while better practices with respect to collecting and publishing data on diversity will not in and of themselves make the justice community more inclusive, these data represent a necessary first step. The authors also explore blending quantitative and qualitative data together to provide a basis for a better understanding of the progress towards a more inclusive justice community in Canada.

Network effects on learning during emergency events

Understanding the factors that enhance or impede learning of individuals is instrumental in achieving organizational performance goals. In this study, the effect of social network structures on the learning attitudes of emergency personnel during an emergency event was investigated. On the basis of a social influence model of learning, a theoretical framework has been proposed to investigate the effects of network structure on learning outcomes of bushfire incident management teams. To test our framework, we investigated social network data, which were extracted from the transcripts of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission report. Empirical results suggest that a network structure of emergency personnel can be identified, which plays a key role in the ability of those actors to engage in learning-related work activity, allowing them to adapt and improvise in complex emergency events. By presenting a model of learning-related work activity, based on a social network analysis of its structure, emergency staff members can strengthen their capacity to be flexible and adaptable.

The Case for “Good” Legal Representation: Is it worth fighting for?

<p>The legal representation of patients detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 (the Act) by way of public funding is very recent. Prior to the Act legal representation was not commonplace and was not seen as desirable. A Royal Commission report in 1957 commented that “As the proceedings on applications to Mental health Review Tribunals will usually be informal and neither the patient nor the hospital or local authority will usually need to be legally represented...”5 It was the Legal Aid Act 1974 that granted public funding for a solicitor to prepare a case for a Mental health Review Tribunal under the Legal Advice Scheme (the Green Form, remember those uncomplicated days!). This was means-tested but did not grant funding for actual representation. Public funding for representation at the hearing was only granted on 1st December 1982 under ‘Assistance by Way of Representation’. A time span up until today’s date of only 28 years!</p>

Geometric characterisation and out-of-plane seismic stability of low-rise unreinforced brick masonry buildings in Auckland, New Zealand

The 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes and corresponding Royal Commission reports have resulted in changes to the legislative environment and led to increased public awareness in New Zealand of the earthquake performance of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings. As a result, building regulators, owners, tenants, users and heritage stakeholders will be facing a unique challenge in the near future where assessments, improvements and demolitions of URM buildings are expected to occur at an unusually high rate. Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand and because of the relative prosperity of Auckland during the period 1880-1935 when most URM buildings were being constructed in New Zealand, the city has the largest number of URM buildings in the country. Identifying those buildings most at seismic risk in Auckland’s large and varied building stock has warranted a rapid field assessment program supplemented by strategically chosen detailed assessments. Information that can be procured through rapid field inspections includes the building geometric typologies (e.g., heights, building footprint geometry and isolated versus row configuration), elevation type (e.g., perforated frame versus solid wall), wall construction (e.g., solid versus cavity, number of leaves) and basic construction material type (e.g., clay brick versus stone). Furthermore, investigation into the architectural history, heritage status and functional usage of Auckland’s URM buildings will affect the direction of retrofit strategies and priorities. As the owner of a large and varied portfolio of URM buildings as well as the local organisation responsible for assessing building safety, Auckland Council is developing exemplar inspection, assessment, prioritisation and retrofit strategies that will target the seismic risks associated with URM buildings, in particular, so as to preserve and enhance safety and the economic and community value of these special buildings. Collaboration amongst Auckland Council, The University of Auckland and GNS Science has resulted in a state-of-the-art rapid quantitative assessment program applied to a sampling of typologically representative URM buildings in Auckland.

Population Growth in the UK: An Issue for Political Debate and Policy Intervention?

Although population growth in the UK is currently arousing widespread popular concern, political scientists have tended to ignore the issue while political elites are manifestly reluctant to address it. In this article I consider a number of recent reports that both recognise the challenges posed by increasing numbers and ignore or reject the possibility of including a population dimension in policy responses. In particular, the article offers a detailed analysis of a recent Royal Commission's report on the environmental impact of demographic change in order to explore the reasons for this antipathy.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE ON EARLY DEVELOPMENTAL PREVENTION OF ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

In her recent 2010 report to the British Columbia provincial legislature, the Representative for Children and Youth, Judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, reported that the government of this province had failed to implement key provisions of the 2006 Hughes Royal Commission Report (Leyne, 2010). This failure, she asserted, put too many children at risk for abuse – or even death – especially within the most vulnerable families, such as those headed by impoverished, ill-housed, young and/or single mothers with little of the social capital typically needed to raise healthy children within B.C. communities. Further, a recently released federal report stated the Canada had among the highest rates of child poverty among the leading advanced industrial countries (UNICEF, 2010). Finally, while incarceration rates for young offenders in Canada, generally, have dropped substantially during the last decade, those youth in custody disproportionately have been from the above multi-problem families, especially Aboriginal families (e.g., Doob & Cesaroni, 2004).

First Nations Education Policy in Canada: Progress or Gridlock? (review)

Reviewed by: First Nations Education Policy in Canada: Progress or Gridlock? Terry Wotherspoon Jerry Paquette and Gérald Fallon. First Nations Education Policy in Canada: Progress or Gridlock? Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010. 464 pp. Preface. Notes. References. Index. $39.95 sc. $85.00 hc. In 1986, Jerry Paquette observed that, “Not only have ‘simple’ solutions to narrow problem definitions in the Canadian aboriginal education arena tended to produce outcomes totally unintended by their architects, such policies have also generated outcomes that have been much less than helpful for Canada’s aboriginal peoples” (Aboriginal Self-Government and Education in Canada, 2). A quarter-century later, in [End Page 292] the wake of repeated prodding from parliamentary inquiries, Royal Commission reports, action plans, working groups, and damning indictments by Canada’s Auditor General, only limited progress has been made to advance from this unforgiving scenario towards an effectively financed, managed and delivered system of education for First Nations in Canada. These issues are the focus of a sequel of sorts, co-authored by Jerry Paquette and Gérald Fallon. In First Nations Education Policy in Canada; Progress or Gridlock?, the authors outline in stark terms how this bleak landscape has persisted for so long, drawing out lessons which they integrate into a vision to produce a truly representative and functioning system of education for First Nations. Paquette and Fallon, who have published widely in areas of educational administration and finance and Aboriginal education and governance, draw on their extensive knowledge of how politics and education operate and intersect, inserting into the extensive literature on Aboriginal education in Canada unique insights that take the reader well beyond common litanies of educational problems confronted by Aboriginal communities. Their blunt assessment of the damage inflicted by over three centuries of colonial practices is accompanied by an indictment of government agents and First Nations leaders alike who continue to perpetuate this ‘pathologizing’ legacy through patterns of governance that take the form of an “exercise of absolute power with impunity” (12). This is detailed in their cautionary discussion of crisis at First Nations University of Canada, when they observe (308–9) that “it is probable that the vision these [First Nations] students grew up with of power and especially of leadership within mainstream society was almost entirely shaped by the exercise of unchecked autocratic power within residential schools.” The absence of meaningful accountability and transparency in educational governance, combined with inadequate finance and a convoluted regulatory structure, have perpetuated a system in which the focus has deviated well away from the real measures of an effective education system that is able to foster effective First Nations participation, control, and educational success. The impetus to build a strong First Nations education system has been further derailed, the authors repeatedly emphasize, by the equation of First Nations control of education with local control, leaving numerous smaller communities without the fiscal and organizational capacities to operate a comprehensive education system. The alternative proposed by Paquette and Fallon is a multi-layered system of educational governance that would integrate distinct First Nations communities with one another through appropriate regional and national bodies. This would include the creation of a nation-wide body, framed as a First Nations Ministry of Education of Canada, which would offer greater economies of scale and comprehensive vision, consolidating expertise and offering the capacity to implement a national system of curriculum, linguistic competency, standards and assessment. The authors acknowledge the likelihood of considerable resistance to some of these initiatives, particularly from those [End Page 293] who would have to relinquish current positions or authority, and they point as well to the controversial nature of their proposals to implement First Nations taxation in order to foster effective local responsibility and reinforce the financial base necessary to build effective educational systems. In the absence of radical changes, they stress, “The cruel alternative to the upward delegation of authority is remaining mired in amateur educational and administrative practices. When fragmented among a large number of tiny communities, local control is ultimately sham control” (216). The book provides numerous unique and compelling insights. It offers a near-comprehensive vision for First Nations education from elementary to post-secondary levels...

The Queensland Health Royal Commissions

Utilisation of public inquiries and royal commissions in Westminster systems of government is a source of continuing interest. That royal commissions continue to be appointed when there is an increasing array of other institutions governments can now employ and given that royal commission reports often have very adverse impacts on the appointing governments, remains a key issue. So the appointment by the Queensland government of not one, but two royal commissions in 2005 into the same topic – the recruitment and performance of doctors recruited abroad working in Queensland public hospitals – provides a special opportunity to analyse the circumstances in which a royal commission mechanism is activated. That one of these royal commissions had to be disbanded because of legal action taken by several of those being investigated is another reason to assess these royal commissions. This is almost without precedent in Australia and has implications for the future conduct of such bodies. Lastly, how the Queensland government was able to minimise the blame from the subsequent royal commission's highly critical report, is also instructive and worthy of assessment.