Suchergebnisse

During the project Apollo moon landings of the mid 1970s the United States of America was the pre-eminent space faring nation followed closely by only the USSR. Since that time many other nations have realised the potential of spaceflight not only for immediate financial gain in areas such as communications and earth observation but also in the strategic areas of scientific discovery, industrial development and national prestige. Australia on the other hand has resolutely refused to participate by instituting its own space program. Successive Australian governments have preferred to obtain any required space hardware or services by purchasing off-the-shelf from foreign suppliers. This policy or attitude is a matter of frustration to those sections of the Australian technical community who believe that the nation should be participating in space technology. In particular the provision of an indigenous launch vehicle that would guarantee the nation independent access to the space frontier. It would therefore appear that any launch vehicle development in Australia will be left to nongovernment organisations to at least define the requirements for such a vehicle and to initiate development of long-lead items for such a project. It is therefore the aim of this thesis to attempt to define some of the requirements for a nascent Australian indigenous launch vehicle system. Conceptual design studies of a space launch system capable of launching a payload of commercially viable mass into orbit are made. The nature of a number of political and economic factors that could slow or stop such a project are pointed out and strategic choices that could minimise these effects are suggested. As a result it is concluded that the putative launch vehicle should be designed, sourced, manufactured and launched using existing Australian resources. Various parameters whose settings are given by discrete choices made such as propellant combination, propellant feed method, engine type and launch site are to be considered and an optimal ...

Abstract
Data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey is used to estimate distributions for the level of educational attainment for Australian indigenous and nonindigenous populations for the years 2001, 2006, 2014 and 2017. Bayesian inference is used to analyse how these ordinal categorical distributions have changed over time and to compare indigenous and nonindigenous distributions. Both the level of educational attainment and inequality in educational attainment are considered. To compare changes in levels over time, as well as inequality between the two populations, first order stochastic dominance and an index of educational poverty are used. To examine changes in inequality over time, two inequality indices and generalised Lorenz dominance are considered. Results are presented in terms of posterior densities for the indices and posterior probabilities for dominance for the dominance comparisons. We find some evidence of improvement over time, especially in the lower parts of the indigenous distribution and that inequality has significantly increased from 2001 to 2017.

Informed by original ground-breaking research, this book "shifts the lens" of study, identifying how Indigenous Australian values and principles have influenced and contributed to an evolving non-Indigenous mainstream Australian culture. Based on the Indigenous principle of respect, Muller presents a solid research framework to break down the barriers of social differences in a culturally safe space. The text offers an insight into the cultural aspects of modern Australian society that contributed to its globally acclaimed handling of the current coronavirus pandemic. During the preparation for dealing with the pandemic, Muller's research was validated as the world witnessed the Australian culture undergoing major change, shifting away from the original colonialist culture based on individuality and social stratification, to a community collective-based culture. It will be a valuable read for scholars in the area of community and allied health, humanities, social policy, social sciences and political studies. People seeking alternative lifestyles, a decolonised future and social change will also find this book useful.

International literature clearly demonstrates the potential for gender-based inequalities to constrain development processes. In the United Nations Development Programme Gender-related Development Index, Australia ranks in the top five across 177 countries, suggesting that the loss of human development due to gender inequality is minor. However, such analysis has not been systematically applied to the Indigenous Australian population, at least in a quantitative sense. Using the 2006 Australian Census, this paper provides an analysis across three dimensions of socioeconomic disparity: Indigeneity, gender, and geography. This paper also explores the development of a similar gender-related index as a tool to enable a relative ranking of the performance of Indigenous males and females at the regional level across a set of socioeconomic outcomes. The initial findings suggest that although there is a substantial development gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, the development loss from gender-related inequality for Indigenous Australians is relatively small. Higher life expectancy and education attainment for Indigenous females balances out their slightly lower earnings to a large extent. At the regional level, Indigenous females tend to fare better than Indigenous males for the set of indicators chosen; and, this is particularly true in capital cities.

1. Learning to drink: the social history of an idea -- 2. The Gothenburg system, monopolies and the community good -- 3. The role of beer canteens and licensed clubs -- 4. The wrecking of the Murrinh Patha Social Club: a case study -- 5. The rise and fall of the Tyeweretye Club: a case study -- 6. Indigenous communities buy hotels -- 7. The Indigenous purchase of the Crossing Inn -- 8. Drinking, Indigenous policy and social enterprise.

The Australian Public Service and the Modern Discourse. Since the development of Western government in Australia, policymakers have struggled with how to interact with Indigenous Australians. The first discourses that framed policy concerned separation, and later segregation, between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Over time, these discourses have evolved into the modern discourse of equality, where Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians are to be considered equal members of a greater Australian society. Since the development of the modern discourse in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the employment of Indigenous Australians in the Australian Public Service (APS) has been an important part of federal policy. As the public employer of the Commonwealth, the APS represents to many people the country's commitment to achieving its goals for Indigenous Australians. Diversity, employment, and service delivery are all key goals, and each is greatly influenced by the modern discourse. Challenges to Realizing the Goals of the Modern Discourse. One of the most pressing challenges to the Commonwealth's goals is historical employment disadvantage among Indigenous Australians. Indigenous unemployment is at least around 40 percent (SCRGSP 2005, p. 11.11), meaning that many Indigenous people lack the qualifications and job experience necessary in order to find employment. One cause for this disadvantage is historical racism against Indigenous Australians. Many employers refuse to hire Indigenous people because of stereotypes, such as Indigenous Australians' refusal to go to work regularly (Pillans 2003a; Pillans 2003b). Old-fashioned racist ideas can also play a part in the inability for Indigenous Australians to find jobs, but racism also influences how employees perform at work. Nearly one in five surveyed Indigenous employees reported that negative stereotypes about Indigenous Australians hindered their work performance, for instance (APSC 2006b, p. 46). While it is impossible to determine how racism affects recruitment and retention, racism is a significant problem for the delivery of services by the APS. A third challenge to the APS is the provision of appropriate and adequate workplace support and development opportunities for Indigenous employees. While many Indigenous employees do not know of any support or development opportunities for Indigenous Australians, the vast majority of employees who do use them find them helpful in their work (APSC 2006b, pp. 38-39). A more pressing issue is the prevalence of tokenism in the workplace. Considering the large proportion of Indigenous employees who work in service delivery, tokenism poses· a significant threat to how well the APS can deliver its mandated services. Job desirability is a final issue that faces the APS. Many Indigenous Australians want jobs that work with Indigenous Australian issues (APSC2006b, pp. 16-17). While this can draw employees into agencies that deal with many Indigenous issues, it can hinder the efforts of other agencies to diversify and provide Indigenous people with jobs. Efforts to Meet the Challenges and Realize the Goals of the Modern Discourse. One category of interventions is meant to improve the diversity of the APS and the employment of Indigenous Australians. Agencies, for example, can identify positions in which skills that many Indigenous Australians have would contribute to the delivery of services. This gives them an advantage in meeting job selection criteria, and it opens opportunities for employment in a number of agencies. However, the use of identified positions is largely limited to agencies that deal with Indigenous issues (APSC 2003b, p. 122). Similarly, apprenticeships and programs for tertiary students allow Indigenous Australians to gain work experience, but they are often limited to certain agencies. This creates large concentrations of Indigenous employees in the APS, not diversity across the Public Service. Agencies may also designate positions as open only to Indigenous Australians. While special measures like these may be able to increase Indigenous employment across the APS, the jobs may be undesirable to many Indigenous employees. Moreover, few such positions exist ("Evaluation of the Use and Effectiveness of Identified Positions and Special Measures for the Employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in the APS" 2006, p. 7). In addition, affirmative action practices have the potential to increase tokenism in the APS. While increasing the number of Indigenous employees may not necessarily lessen the problem, improving employees' skills and job qualifications may help employees to realize that Indigenous employees are equal members of the workplace. Finally, expanding the mainstream employee development opportunities that are available to Indigenous employees may help them to improve their job performance, thereby improving APS service delivery. Considering that most Indigenous employees find mainstream programs more helpful than Indigenous-specific development programs in their jobs (APSC 2006b, p. 46), improving access to these programs may be more beneficial that increasing Indigenous-specific programs. Conclusions. Many of the issues that face the APS in achieving its Indigenous employment goals result from conflicts among the goals themselves. One possible solution would be to reconcile the three major goals, establishing how programs to achieve them will engage with each other. In addition, Indigenous employees should have the necessary qualifications for their jobs, and their coworkers should respect their qualifications and work performance. Reconciling the tensions among the goals would be a step forward in creating a more equitable and effective Public Service.