Royal Commission Research Articles

Initial teacher education in Canada: what the past 50 years have taught us about influence and impact

ABSTRACT Initial teacher education (ITE) has changed dramatically over the past 50 years but some of the same issues persist in Canada and around the world. This article begins with an overview of how teacher education has evolved in Canada with a particular emphasis on the past 50 years. It recounts the gradual rise of professionalisation as teacher preparation moved from normal schools and teachers’ colleges to universities. We discuss the struggles for control of teacher education and how these have played out differently in various provinces and territories. The second part of the article provides an overview of external bodies that influence policies and programmes related to ITE in Canada including government agencies, royal commissions, colleges of teachers, and teachers’ federations. The third part focuses on internal influences on ITE that are both university and school-based and examines some of the points of tension between them including programme content, the balance between theory and practice, and the practicum. Finally, we look at recent developments in ITE focusing specifically on Indigenous education, truth and reconciliation and equity, diversity and inclusion, all of which will continue to be priorities for Canadian ITE moving forwards.

Codesigning rights-based recordkeeping for childhood out-of-home care

ABSTRACT Decades of inquires in Australia and internationally into child welfare and protection systems have highlighted the importance of quality recordkeeping to the lifelong identity, memory and accountability needs for those who experience Alternative Care. Having learnt about the devastating impacts of poor recordkeeping and challenges in accessing records of childhood Care experiences, it is clear that transformative approaches are needed to tackle what Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Childhood Sexual Abuse in December 2017 has labelled a ‘systemic and enduring’ problem. In this paper, we report on our involvement in a co-design team of recordkeeping researchers, Care leaver advocates, and digital technologists working together to develop a deep understanding of Care recordkeeping needs and realise them in the functionality of a digital prototype. Developed as a design provocation – a blueprint for participatory recordkeeping infrastructure – we will explain how it enables those currently cast as the client of services and ‘subject’ of records, to participate in their Care recordkeeping on equitable terms. We will discuss how having knowledge of, and appropriate say over, who has access to personal information and records can be re-imagined through digital technologies in support of lifelong rights to identity, privacy, autonomy and accountability.

A lost opportunity: did the Disability Royal Commission let down parents with intellectual disabilities and their children?

This article considers the response of the Disability Royal Commission (the Commission) to the experiences of the estimated 21,000 Australian parents with intellectual disabilities and their children. Research shows that interlocking complex social disadvantage and ableist professional attitudes toward parenting by people with intellectual disabilities persist, leading to very high rates of child protection and child removal. The approach taken by the Commission to examination of violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation against parents with disabilities as a group led to the invisibility of parents with intellectual disabilities within the Final Report. The life course approach was narrowly conceived and did not fully capture reproductive justice across the life course. The issue of parenting and child protection contact was primarily considered in relation to First Nations families, which brought critical attention to some aspects of systemic violence and abuse, but issues and experiences of non-Indigenous parents with intellectual disabilities were absent. We argue that these and other flaws prevented the Commission from making important recommendations in relation to legal and policy reform to uphold the rights of people with intellectual disabilities to become parents and to receive the support they need for parenting over the life course.

“Enough with the closed doors adorned with inclusion and diversity statements”: an examination of the Disability Royal Commission’s position regarding special schools

One of the most contentious outcomes of the Disability Royal Commission (the Commission) is the divided recommendations regarding special schools. This is an outcome that is particularly relevant to students with intellectual disabilities who are more likely than other students with disabilities to be enrolled in special schools. The place of special schools in an inclusive education system has long been debated among educators, policymakers, and parents of students with disabilities, and this debate was no less prominent in the investigations of the Commission, as it grappled with the question of what safe, quality, inclusive schools look like for students with disabilities. The Commissioners sought unsuccessfully to avoid polarised discussions about special schools and arrived at a split conclusion about the role of special schools going forward. Understanding and critiquing the Commission’s divided recommendations on special schools is the focus of this article.

Australia at an educational crossroads: special schools and inclusive education

The ongoing debate surrounding special schools and inclusive education in Australia has come to the forefront since the recommendations of the 2023 Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability, where the Commissioners were split on the implementation of full educational inclusion and the elimination of special schools. The authors discuss the controversy surrounding segregated special education classes and schools, particularly considering the push for full inclusion. The concept of inclusion is examined through a brief review of national and international policies and academic and popular literature, including how the inclusion continuum is conceptualized by policymakers, academics, and families. Stakeholder perspectives on the complexities and challenges of implementing full inclusion in mainstream school settings offer differing experiences and opinions on what is possible. Lastly, by examining the nuances of the special school controversy, the authors provide recommendations on how best to meet the educational needs of all students, across the spectrum of abilities.

Geolocation of Old Photographs and Rephotography in the Field: Contribution to a New Understanding of the al-ʿŪla Oasis in the Early 20th Century a.d.

ABSTRACT Historical photographs are commonly available in landscape archaeology; however, they are rarely used systematically for the maximum benefit in terms of spatial and temporal information. In the framework of the al-ʿŪla Cultural Oasis Project (funded and steered by the French Agency for AlUla Development on behalf of the Royal Commission for AlUla), photographs taken at ground level by the Dominican Fathers Antonin Jaussen and Raphaël Savignac in the early 20th century a.d. were geolocated by identifying mountain peaks in the background and comparing distance ratios (on the photos) with angle ratios (on GIS). These locations were then visited in the field to re-take the photographs. This work demonstrates the value of recontextualized ground-level photographs to improve our knowledge of archaeological landscapes when cross-referenced with data from a systematic archaeological survey. We also propose a reproducible methodology for geolocating historical photographs in similar or other contexts.

Why was allied health missed? A critical examination of the recommendations of the Disability Royal Commission for allied health professionals working with people with intellectual disabilities

Many people with intellectual disabilities have complex health needs that are not met by the Australian healthcare system. The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (the Commission) looked at the failings of the healthcare system and the improvements needed. Services provided by allied health professionals are one part of the healthcare system. This article describes the evidence the Commission heard about the unmet allied health needs of people with intellectual disabilities, the resulting harms caused, and the recommendations to address these. Despite identifying unmet allied health needs, the Commission heard evidence predominantly about nursing and medical care, although many of its recommendations were applied to the entire health workforce, including allied health professionals. The article reflects on the challenges of implementing the Commission’s recommendations and the risk that positive change in health outcomes for people with intellectual disabilities may not be achieved.

Overshadowed voices in media reporting on truth-telling commissions

Over the past decades, truth-telling commissions aimed at uncovering, confronting and providing justice for the past treatment of children have been established in many countries, including the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (RCIRCSA 2013-2017) and the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) (2018-2023). Journalism plays important roles both in triggering commissions of inquiry and in attracting public attention to their work and findings. This paper investigates media reporting on the RCIRCSA and the TRC. The Commissions were not similar in scale, scope or legal powers, however, they both generated spaces for public listening to stories about the consequences of past policies and present practices of child removal, abuse and racism that potentially could change the grand narratives of each nation. Our findings suggest that future commissions should pay particular attention to the structural power of news logics and mediation. We find, despite the widely different cases, consistent patterns of uneven and hierarchical media reporting and overshadowing of First Nations voices and aspirations.

A critique of the Disability Royal Commission’s approach and recommendations for educational inclusion in schools

The Disability Royal Commission received evidence of educational exclusion of school students with disabilities, occurring in both overt and covert forms, and of students’ experiences of violence and abuse. According to this evidence and prior research and reports, exclusionary and abusive practices appear to be entrenched in school education in both mainstream and special settings. The relationship between the evidence presented to the Commission and prior inquiries and research is presented with the aim of providing a critique of its approach and recommendations. Highlighted are the contrasting recommendations to either abolish or retain special schools and other segregated school settings. Other recommendations are reviewed to demonstrate how the final recommendations were part of a comprehensive suite of strategies to address long-standing exclusionary practices. Particular attention is given to students with severe-profound intellectual disabilities, who are most likely to be enrolled in or diverted to special schools and segregated units located in mainstream schools. Although the recommendations were comprehensive in addressing key contributors to exclusion, they showed a failure to consider in greater depth prior research and current positive practices of authentic inclusive education. It is argued that the Commission missed the opportunity to draw on research based on models of supports, shared understanding of inclusion, and making use of professionals beyond educators to provide complementary expertise.

Analysing policy success and failure in Australia: Pink batts and set‐top boxes

AbstractThis article examines two Australian government programs from the Rudd/Gillard Labor government, the Home Insulation Program (HIP) and the Digital Switchover Household Assistance Scheme (HAS). Both became shibboleths of the Labor government's perceived waste and incompetence. Using key informant interviews and documents obtained under freedom of information (FOI), I analyse these programs against the multiple ‘dimensions’ of success proposed by Newman and common narrative frames around programme failure. I argue that the HAS was broadly successful across most dimensions of success, notwithstanding the adverse media attention. The study identifies four key factors driving HIP's failure: scheme design, installer training, demand control, and departmental expertise. All of these came back to the timeline pressures, driven by conflicting priorities, which in turn gave the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) more influence than would usually be the case. In comparison, HAS's success is attributed to crucial design choices, like the phased rollout and head contractor model. The article identifies the danger of ignoring subject matter expertise and poor policy/Cabinet processes, which have been reinforced by the recent Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme.Points for practitioners Demand‐driven programmes need to have demand‐side control techniques built into them. The role of central agencies needs to be carefully considered, particularly in relation to areas that are not their expertise, such as detailed programme development and implementation. Lessons about poor policy and Cabinet processes, as well as cultural change from the Pink Batts Royal Commission, do not appear to have been sufficiently embedded in the culture of the APS, as there are ongoing echoes of the same problems evident in the Robodebt Royal Commission.

Making public or quiet listening? Media logics and public inquiries into the abuse of children

This article examines the tensions between ‘publicness’ and ‘privacy’ in national commissions of inquiry. Through the insights of those who worked deep inside Australia's landmark Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (RCIRCSA, 2013–2017), and the evidence provided in its final report, we explore the organisational and media logics of the Commission's highly publicised public hearings, and the ‘quiet’ institutional listening practices of its private sessions and engagement with marginalised communities. Royal Commissions are an important mechanism for raising awareness of past crimes on the public agenda. Our research finds that while the revelatory outcomes of the RCIRCSA have been well documented, its private sessions, engagement and research are less well understood. We argue ‘publicness’ is a relatively unchallenged good that is enacted through news media and the royal commission process, but media logics can limit their capacity to address the ongoing causes and impacts of child sexual abuse against the most impacted children. Participants reflected on the media logics that drove strategic decisions to ‘make public’ some cases and institutions, while others remained in the Commission's private realm. The article concludes that the confidential sharing of evidence has been undervalued in inquiry media studies that often centre the journalists’ role in uncovering and publicly revealing previously unheard stories. Drawing on international comparisons we find that while quiet listening risks negating the opportunity to amplify experience, it may also counter the potential silencing effects of unwanted public media scrutiny and protect potential witnesses from further harm.

How neoliberal individualism led the Disability Royal Commission astray

People with intellectual disabilities can be abused in all settings: homes, communities, and services. Reducing this abuse requires attention be paid to people who are engaged with people with intellectual disabilities, who were largely overlooked by a neoliberal inquiry focused on individuals. Displacing neoliberalism has been further impeded by its recent combination with social media, which has engendered “cultural homogenisation”: the further spread and sustenance of the same ideas. This article aims to offer a fundamental critique of the Disability Royal Commission’s (the Commission) inquiry by revealing the way neoliberal ideology has shaped its recommendations; and to identify positive alternatives. Arguments: (1) Neoliberal individualism is a powerful but invisible doctrine. Its focus on choice and autonomy has generated concern to provide accessible information, irrespective of its feasibility; and concern to eliminate restrictive practices, irrespective of equally important needs of staff and parents. (2) “Datafication” intended to monitor and improve otherwise unregulated markets is expensive, ineffective, and impedes engagement. (3) The only meaningful adult life envisaged is paid work, despite a meagre and shrinking number of people with intellectual disabilities obtaining jobs. (4) The limitations of a legal inquiry are identified. (5) Alternatives to the promotion of voice, choice, and work are explored. Exhausted neoliberal ideology led the Commission astray. Rather than continuing to enact neoliberal solutions, two different initiatives that are more likely to disrupt the status quo are proposed: replacing legal intervention with public health approaches to reducing violence in all settings; and developing new “counter-publics” of fun and belonging that connect people and their consociates.

Recommendations of the Disability Royal Commission fail to recognise families, siblings in particular, as natural lifelong supports for people with intellectual disabilities

The Final Report of the Disability Royal Commission (the Commission) takes a largely generic view of disability and does not fully consider the complex experiences and needs of people with intellectual disabilities and the unique ways that families can contribute to the fulfilment of their lives. The aim of this article is to fill this gap by highlighting the importance of the family context, the “informal supports” or “natural safeguards” provided by many families, and the contributions these relationships make to the safety and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities. Given the significance of family relationships for this group, it is unfortunate that the Commission’s recommendations pay limited attention to the considerable value family relationships add to the lives of people with intellectual disabilities, especially sibling relationships, which can last a lifetime. The Commission’s recommendations provide little that contributes towards strengthening or enabling families to better support their relatives with intellectual disabilities, or that promotes recognition of the complications that can arise in these relationships and how they might be avoided. The Report often fails to recognise the potential for families of people with intellectual disabilities to keep them safe, facilitate social encounters within their local communities, and minimise challenges, such as negative attitudes, to their inclusion. I argue that the “human rights approach” alone cannot fully address the specific challenges that people with intellectual disabilities and their families face. Policies, supports, and services could provide more tailored approaches to ensure stronger relationships, greater social inclusion, and improved safety for people with intellectual disabilities and the families who support them.

Justice for institutional child abuse survivors: Comparing views from survivor and non-survivor led advocacy groups

BackgroundHow victims and survivors of non-recent institutional child abuse – and the advocacy groups that support them – conceptualise justice has become a central concern for policy makers designing redress schemes. ObjectivesThis study aimed to explore articulations of justice by two types of advocacy organisations in Australia – survivor and non-survivor led groups – by examining transcripts from public hearings of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Participants and SettingHearings held in 2015 for Case Study 25: Redress and Civil Litigation were analysed. The analysis focuses on five survivor led groups and 13 non-survivor led groups. MethodsUsing a framework adapted from Daly (2014, 2017), qualitative content and thematic analysis was used to analyse transcript data to identify “survival needs” and “justice interests”. ResultsFor survivor led groups, validation was the most frequently coded justice interest, while for the non-survivor led groups, the category of survival needs was the most frequently recorded element. ConclusionsAdvocacy groups contribute highly valuable insights and perspectives to redress consultation and design processes. A key justice interest emphasised by survivor led groups was the need for public acknowledgement of how offending institutions wield power, both in the abuse of children and in the subsequent strategies employed to ensure survival of the institution and avoid justice processes. For non-survivor led groups, communicating their professional expertise about what victims and survivors need from a redress scheme was paramount.

The Wilson government, the rise of nationalism and the road to the royal commission on the constitution, 1966-1968

ABSTRACT The Royal Commission on the Constitution was a rare moment when the UK’s territorial governance was considered as a whole. Established as a response to the rise in electoral support for the SNP and Plaid Cymru in the mid to the late 1960s, the Commission was seen by some at the time and others since of being a cynical attempt to kick the constitutional ‘can down the road’. This article is not an analysis of the Royal Commission’s findings, rather it offers an examination of why it came to be established. Drawing on an extensive range of primary and secondary source materials, including Cabinet papers and ministerial correspondence, this paper provides a detailed assessment of the months of debates and deliberations, which preceded the decision to establish a Royal Commission on the Constitution. The by-election successes and unnerving near-misses for Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties at by elections between 1966 and 1968 created a sense within the Cabinet that the Government needed to have a clear response to the electorate. That this response was a Commission only followed an intense process of debate and deliberation within Government that failed to produce a broadly acceptable alternative.

The future of preventive health care for people with intellectual disabilities in Australia: an analysis of the Disability Royal Commission’s approach, findings and recommendations

The Disability Royal Commission (the Commission) investigated many issues, one of which was whether people with cognitive disabilities, including people with intellectual disabilities, faced systemic neglect in the Australian health system. Using a method of co-design with people with intellectual disabilities, we analysed the Commission’s approach and recommendations about preventive health care. We identified how the Commission’s recommendations can inform the achievement of the National Preventive Health Strategy (the Strategy) for people with intellectual disabilities. We found that a strength of the Commission’s process was the multiple ways it inquired about the experience of accessing preventive health care. However, the inclusiveness of the invitations to participate in the Commission’s work and the location of the public hearings were limitations for key stakeholders. Our analysis also noted that the Commission’s public hearings focused on the supply side of healthcare access (health services) compared to the demand side of access (health users). This was a missed opportunity to learn from health users about their experiences. Two challenges to the implementation of the recommendations include the focus on cognitive disability instead of intellectual disability, and the focus on health care in general, rather than specifically on preventive health care. We also found that the Commission’s recommendations mainly relate to the leadership, governance and funding elements in the Strategy, with a few actions relevant to prevention, partnerships, information, research, surveillance and preparedness. It is important that all the elements required to mobilise prevention systems are considered and actioned to achieve the Strategy.

Robodebt and Novel Data Technologies in the Public Sector

The recent Royal Commission into Robodebt drew Australians’ attention to the risks of data technologies in the public sector. Novel data technologies, including artificial intelligence, offer potential public benefits but create risks to individuals and society. I argue that existing Australian data protection laws offer inadequate protection against the dangers posed by the use of such technologies in the public sector. Pending more tailored legislative change, I consider the extent to which specific human rights laws such as those in Queensland, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory, together with effective application of risk assessment methodologies within a human rights culture, could be layered over data protection laws to provide ongoing technologically-neutral protection against such harms.

Respectful tolerance, misrecognition, and religious diversity: reflections on the New Zealand government’s response to the 2019 Christchurch massacre

ABSTRACT This paper shows that the traditional framing of diversity in Aotearoa New Zealand in terms of ethnicity hampers the government’s ability to give due recognition to Muslim communities in the wake of the Christchurch massacre. It first examines the New Zealand government’s response to the Royal Commission’s inquiry into the massacre with specific focus on the establishment of the Ministry of Ethnic Communities. The analysis draws from government documents and data, media reports, and nine semi-structured qualitative interviews with members of Muslim communities in the South Island of New Zealand. It then examines the participants’ responses to two questions: first, whether they think the government leadership has done enough to promote respectful tolerance and second, the key factor or factors they believe need to be addressed for New Zealand to become a more tolerant society. The article highlights how the government’s failure to listen attentively has led to the misrecognition and non-recognition of Muslim communities to the detriment of its stated goals of promoting religious tolerance, social cohesion, and inclusion in the interests of national security.

The Disability Royal Commission on National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) workforce issues: avoiding the root causes?

Workforce issues are central to the changes necessary to create safer and higher-quality services for people with intellectual disabilities. This article examines the Disability Royal Commission’s (the Commission) workforce recommendations relating to the disability services sector, which has been beset by chronic workforce problems since the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). We describe the rich evidence in the Commission’s Final Report and its analysis of key issues such as work value, disability worker qualifications, training, and worker registration. Many of these issues are especially relevant to people with intellectual disabilities, who need sophisticated, highly skilled support provided by experienced workers, characteristics that can be scarce in a high-turnover industry with persistent labour shortages and almost no barriers to entry. However, the Commission ultimately backs away from making recommendations on the most controversial issues, including the price-setting matrix for disability support services, known as the Disability Support Worker Cost Model. Unchanged, this will continue to constrain the sector’s ability to create high-quality working environments conducive to continuous learning that will support people with intellectual disabilities in the way they want to be supported.

Introduction: Policing the Permacrisis

AbstractAgainst the backdrop of what seems like a perpetual cycle of crisis for policing in modern day England and Wales, this introduction synthesises some of the core challenges facing the police. A catalogue of crimes committed by serving officers, missed opportunities for reform, and a scathing review of the internal culture of the Metropolitan Police culminating in a recommendation for a ‘complete overhaul’, might initially leave some readers with the view that there is little hope for fixing an outdated and buckling police service. Yet this collection of articles, authored by academic experts, senior police—both current and former—and commentators, not only summarises some of the problems facing policing as the new Government beds in. The contributions also brim with a diverse set of ideas for changing policing for the better and rebuilding trust and confidence. We conclude with the idea that a fundamental review and reconceptualization of the police role, of the type that might be provided by a Royal Commission, is needed if we are to meet the challenges that lie ahead.