Standards In Australia Research Articles

Duty and Standards of Care for Drinking Water Regulation in Australia

The application of mandatory drinking water standards in Australia should ensure a basic water quality for all communities, with some standards written as a function of population. The main tenet of feasibility would be the capture of public benefits which foreseeably outweighed costs. Benefit-cost analysis can be a very valuable tool which aids in the decision process, however care must be taken to avoid institutional abuse or an over-positioned stature because of its applicative constraints.

Standards for Standards: The Development of Australian Professional Standards for Teaching

Professional standards for teaching have been developed in many countries during the 1990s. In Australia, the first wave of standards development has been dominated by the large state government school systems, and influenced by competency-based conceptions of standards. This paper provides a review of the first wave standards, concluding that these standards are characterised by long lists of duties, opaque language, generic skills, decontextualised performances, an expanded range of duties and weak assessments. As a second wave of standards development begins, led by teachers professional associations and deeply influenced by the methods of the American National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the paper proposes a set of standards for development of professional standards in Australia. Standards, it is argued, should be brief, transparent, specialised, contextualised, focused on teaching and learning, and matched by strong assessments.

The Reintroduction of the True and Fair Override and Harmonization with IASC Standards in Australia: Lessons from the EU and Implications for Financial Reporting and International Trade

Two issues currently facing Australia having implications for financial reporting and trade are first, calls for the reintroduction of the true and fair view (TFV) override and second, the move to harmonize Australian accounting standards with those of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC). The purpose of the article is to examine the likely effects of such moves given the increasing globalization of both financial and product markets. The conclusions of the article suggest first, a reintroduction of the TFV override would be consistent with its role in the Fourth Directive as the fundamental principle of financial reporting. Second, harmonization with IASs by default will allow an override, as IAS 1 now provides for one. Third, Australia's harmonization of financial reporting requirements with the wider global community may be impeded because of inconsistencies between IASs, US GAAP, and EU Directives. Hence, the proposed reintroduction of the TFV override together with IASC reporting is unlikely to enhance Australia's link to the wider global community, leading to potential negative consequences in both financial and product markets.

Accounting for public heritage facilities – assets or liabilities of the government?

Public heritage facilities – national parks, art galleries, museums and so on – are now required by professional accounting standards in Australia to be valued and included in government general purpose financial statements as assets. This study challenges the appropriateness of such an accounting treatment in relation to the SAC4 definition of assets and the purported usefulness of the information. Instead it is argued that these facilities are public goods, and that commercial accounting principles should not be applied to them. The article explains the nature and significance of public goods and how they differ from private goods. It explains why commercial accounting principles are irrelevant for public heritage facilities because their objectives are social rather than financial and why commercial valuations are irrelevant and unreliable if applied to them. Finally, it is contended that the facilities are assets held in trust for the nation by government and hence should not be included in its general purpose financial reports.

Book Review: Studies of Everyday Literacy Practices and Case-Study Methodology

Everyday Literacies is a research study describing the varied literacy practices of four adolescents in Brisbane, Australia during 1994, but it also outlines a theory of literacy and a research methodology that the author, Michele Knobel, believes can help illuminate people's everyday literacy practices. Knobel's research for Everyday Literacies was historically situated alongside a movement to set national academic literacy standards in Australia. Standards setting, Knobel argues, generally involves discussion about what students should know, while ignoring or devaluing the knowledge and understanding they bring with them to the classroom. In an attempt to understand both the range of literacy practices in which young people engage in their everyday lives and how those practices intersect with the

The development of general practice standards in Australia. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has spent 4 years developing a set of entry standards which define the minimum features of general practices expected for the mid-1990s. The project design followed a slow, iterative process, with several opportunities for wide consultation with professional, consumer and Government groups. The draft standards were piloted in 25 volunteer practices, modified and then field-tested in 200 randomly selected practices representing urban and rural practices. Results of this field testing showed that the standards had content validity and that reliable measures were possible using triangulation from several data sources. The current version of the standards has been distributed widely for voluntary application in Australian general practices from early 1997.

SURGEON‐SUPERINTENDENTS ON CONVICT SHIPS

Surgeon-superintendents on the convict ships transporting convicted men, women and youths to Australia played a key role in the evolution of medical standards in Australia. The British Transportation Acts of 1717 and 1825 added the punishment of exile and banishment to the prevailing penology of the era, that of retribution and deterrence. The surgeon-superintendents formed a bulwark during the sea voyages (between 88 and 258 days), protecting the convicts against the potential abuses of the time. Between 1787 and 1868, some 160 000 convicts were transported to the open air gaols at Sydney, Norfolk Island, Van Diemen's Land (Hobart, Macquarie Harbour, Maria Island and Port Arthur), Moreton Bay, Melville Island and Fremantle. Seventeen convict ships left England for Australia in 1823 alone. The surgeon-superintendent's role on the high seas evolved over this time from one of amateur casualness with a primary responsibility to the system rather than to individual convicts, to that of a highly efficient, courageous professionalism. It became a new specialty discipline in its own right. Mortality on the convict transportation voyages fell from one in three convicts embarked in 1790 to zero mortality in the convicts transported on the Sultana in 1859. The key role of the surgeon-superintendent, in the context of preventive medicine, is developed in the present paper. Historical nodes in the evolution of the new discipline of prison doctor were the 1814 Report of Redfern (himself a former convict), and the evolution from the 1820s of doctors who became the pioneers of the specialty discipline of the Prison Medical Service in Australia. The experiences and influences of surgeon-superintendents on convict transportation vessels formed the catalyst for the Passenger Act (UK) of 1855 which, for the remaining decades of the 19th century, regulated the lives of millions of immigrants to Australia and New Zealand.

The effects of legislation on clinical psychology practice standards in Australia

The effects of legislation on clinical psychology practice standards in Australia

The Setting Of Accounting Standards in Australia: An Evolving Structure

The evolution of the accounting standard‐setting process in Australia will bring further significant changes as we move to introduce major features of the structures existing in the United States and the United Kingdom. Those features include an independent standard‐setting body, full‐time board members and broad‐based funding of the process. Similar structural changes can be expected in other countries which have well developed standard‐setting activities, and ultimately at the level of the International Accounting Standards Committee. These changes will result from the increasing demands on the standard‐setting process and the increasing accountability required by those affected by the output of the process.

The National Food Authority of Australia: Tony Downer describes the new system of setting food standards in Australia

In 1991, the Australian government established the National Food Authority to develop a unified approach to food legislation throughout the country. This article describes background to setting up this Authority, its organisation, its function, and processes for the drafting and approval of new standards.

ACCOUNTING STANDARDS FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR IN AUSTRALIA

The need for better financial reporting by public sector entities as a means towards greater accountability has been widely canvassed. This paper discusses the development and application of accounting standards in Australia in this context. The responses of the accounting profession, through its standard setting process, and of the Commonwealth and several State governments are described and the conclusion reached that these developments will mean significant improvement in the information content of public sector financial reports.

Perceptions of Educational Standards in Australia: The Dichotomy between Schools and Commerce and Industry

Perceptions of Educational Standards in Australia: The Dichotomy between Schools and Commerce and Industry

Face to Face

In this month's “Face to Face,” Frank R. Bishop, president of the Australian Water and Wastewater Association, is interviewed by David B. Preston, Executive Director of AWWA. The following topics are discussed: size and population of Australia relative to water supply demand; management and financing of water systems, the absence of investor‐owned utilities in Australia; the practice of combining water and wastewater treatment facilities in Australia; water quality standards in Australia; waterborne diseases; treatment of brackish and saline waters, which are abundant in Australia; groundwater; and organizational characteristics of the Australian Water and Wastewater Association.

Education for Librarianship, Accreditation, and Standards in Australia at the Beginning of the 1980s

Education for Librarianship, Accreditation, and Standards in Australia at the Beginning of the 1980s

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AUDITING STANDARDS IN AUSTRALIA

The development of auditing standards in Australia occurred in three phases. The primary professional initiatives have come from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia. The first phase was marked by F. E. Trigg's presentation to the Australian Congress on Accounting in 1948. In this work Trigg relied heavily on English practice and thought. The second phase was largely a period of inactivity so far as auditing standards were concerned because of concern for other matters of greater urgency. The third phase was marked by the adoption of American ideas and, partly in response to continuing criticism of accounting, a commitment to the continuing review of auditing standards.

Standards for the fire hazard of clothing: The Australian experience

AbstractThe Australian Children's Nightwear Standards have been accepted as the basis of legislation in all States of Australia and by the Commonwealth Government. The standards are based on the philosophy that garment design as well as combustion characteristics of the material is an important consideration in assessing the fire hazard of nightwear. Using this approach a classification system has been devised which place children's nightwear into three categories of potential fire hazard. If a garment cannot be classified then it cannot be legally sold in Australia. The combustion characteristics tested are ease of ignition, rate of flame propagation and surface burn properties. For classification all materials used for children's nightwear must pass the latter test. The design of the standard test methods, criteria for classification and the concepts of safe design were developed by collection data from burns accidents and burnt clothing from accident victims from the burns research unit of a large children's hospital and by the study of the burning behavior of clothing on a manikin. The combustion criteria are not so stringent as to require the use of inherently flame resist materials or the use of flame retardant finishes. This approach in combination with safe design criterial enable commercially available textiles to meet the legislative requirements for children's nightwear. This mean that the nightwear standards are inexpensive to attain and do not require a sophisticated textile technology. A consumer labeling system has been designed to describe the three categories but yet there is no evidence to suggest that this had had any effect in reducing the number of burns accidents—consumers apparently regrading safe nightwear as a low priority. An inconsistent aspect of the calssification system is the incorporation into the standards in 1977 of criteria to prevent the classification of cotton flannelette nightdresses and the incorporation of arbitrary requirements for other nightdress containing cotton. These inconsistencies have been caused fundamentally by a problem which continues to bedevil the writing of good standards in Australia—that is, the lack of nationwide statistics on burns accidents.

The Challenge of Tropical Australia

THE LONELY PLAINS of tropical Australia still support only a sprinkling of people. Not more than 360,000 live in the great expanse of its ,I150,000 square miles-38 percent of the continent with only 4 percent of its people-and most of these are concentrated in the lush coastlands of northeastern Queensland. Each inhabitant in the tropical portions of Western Australia and Northern Territory together has an average of 37 square miles of land. Many Australians tend to adopt a defensive attitude in discussion about the continued absence of close settlement in the tropical north. There is the apologetic view which deplores the fact that the ratio of people to land is so low. There is aggressive pride that the ratio of productive capacity to people is so high. Some believe that northerners have made a go of it in a harsh environment where the settler wages a constant battle against drought in a lonely, remote and generally infertile region. Others blame the Commonwealth Government for failing to finance more and larger public works projects and development schemes. These viewpoints are readily comprehensible. They are most strongly impressed upon the traveller in northern Australia, driving uncomfortably for hundreds of miles over unmade roads through silent, empty plains. It is the writer's opinion, however, that this defensive attitudethis assumption that Australians have failed where they should have succeeded-is generally unwarranted and that its basis is much more strongly emotional than rational. It arises mainly from Australians' awareness of the sharp contrast between the abundance of land and high living standards in Australia generally and the land hunger and poverty in many parts of the neighbouring lands, and from the feeling that, if these Asian neighbours do not aspire to occupy this incompletely settled continent, they must at least covet its resources. Above all, Australians fear that nine million people constitute a perilously slender manpower resource to defend their continent and preserve their