The Implementation of Process Regulation in Occupational Health and Safety: A Comparative Study of Policy and Practice. The shift from prescriptive to process regulation of occupational health and safety (OHS) over the past 25 years represents the most significant transformation of OHS law since the nineteenth century. OHS regulators hoped process standards would provide a comprehensive and adaptable regulatory framework to address hazards at work. Yet the implementation and enforcement of proce ....The Implementation of Process Regulation in Occupational Health and Safety: A Comparative Study of Policy and Practice. The shift from prescriptive to process regulation of occupational health and safety (OHS) over the past 25 years represents the most significant transformation of OHS law since the nineteenth century. OHS regulators hoped process standards would provide a comprehensive and adaptable regulatory framework to address hazards at work. Yet the implementation and enforcement of process standards and systematic OHS management has been little researched. This project will analyse the development and implementation of process standards in six jurisdictions, assessing their evolution, effectiveness and ability to meet changing workplace circumstances. It will provide knowledge and tools for improving interventions.Read moreRead less
A cancer on our economy? An empirical interdisciplinary study of the criminalisation of serious cartel conduct in Australia. Serious cartel conduct is seen as highly damaging to Australia's economic welfare but only recently has it been regarded as criminal. This research will inform public debate about the impetus and justification for this major shift in competition law policy and enforcement. It will provide robust empirical evidence about public opinion and business behaviour and derive insi ....A cancer on our economy? An empirical interdisciplinary study of the criminalisation of serious cartel conduct in Australia. Serious cartel conduct is seen as highly damaging to Australia's economic welfare but only recently has it been regarded as criminal. This research will inform public debate about the impetus and justification for this major shift in competition law policy and enforcement. It will provide robust empirical evidence about public opinion and business behaviour and derive insights into whether criminalisation will promote greater compliance with the law. It will assist in refining practical implementation measures to ensure the effectiveness of a criminal regime and it will aid legislators and regulators in policy-making, regulatory design and enforcement in relation to competition law and business regulation more generally.Read moreRead less
The Impact of ACCC Enforcement Action: Evaluating the explanatory and normative power of responsive regulation and responsive law. The project will enhance the capacity of the ACCC and other business regulators to ethically and effectively regulate to achieve the goals of regulatory policy such as a fair, competitive economy, occupational health and safety, and environmental integrity. Australia is already well recognised as a leader in ambitious empirical and policy-oriented social science rese ....The Impact of ACCC Enforcement Action: Evaluating the explanatory and normative power of responsive regulation and responsive law. The project will enhance the capacity of the ACCC and other business regulators to ethically and effectively regulate to achieve the goals of regulatory policy such as a fair, competitive economy, occupational health and safety, and environmental integrity. Australia is already well recognised as a leader in ambitious empirical and policy-oriented social science research on regulatory compliance (through the ARC funded Governance Network including RegNet at ANU). This project will enhance that reputation with the most comprehensive data set on the corporate compliance impact of enforcement action and fundamental re-thinking of foundational theoretical questions about the nature and capacities of regulation.Read moreRead less
Policing Migration in Australia: an analysis of onshore migration policing networks. Recent events concerning the wrongful detention and deportation of Australian citizens have drawn attention to the significant impact of the enforcement of immigration controls within Australian communities. However, this dimension of law enforcement has received little or no attention from academic researchers. An improved understanding of the nature and dynamics of migration policing will provide social benefi ....Policing Migration in Australia: an analysis of onshore migration policing networks. Recent events concerning the wrongful detention and deportation of Australian citizens have drawn attention to the significant impact of the enforcement of immigration controls within Australian communities. However, this dimension of law enforcement has received little or no attention from academic researchers. An improved understanding of the nature and dynamics of migration policing will provide social benefits through the promotion of good relations with ethnic minority communities and the accountable exercise of statutory powers. This understanding is crucial if institutions of social regulation are to adapt to the challenges of policing a society which is not only multicultural but also increasingly globally interconnected.Read moreRead less
Counter-terrorism policing for culturally diverse communities. Counter-terrorism policing will be investigated by focusing on the impact of counter terrorism measures on the police, community, media and legislative/policy framework. An interdisciplinary approach is taken to the first ever examination of how counter terrorism is changing both the policing function and linguistically and culturally diverse communities. It will produce a counter-terrorism policing model that challenges traditiona ....Counter-terrorism policing for culturally diverse communities. Counter-terrorism policing will be investigated by focusing on the impact of counter terrorism measures on the police, community, media and legislative/policy framework. An interdisciplinary approach is taken to the first ever examination of how counter terrorism is changing both the policing function and linguistically and culturally diverse communities. It will produce a counter-terrorism policing model that challenges traditional paramilitary responses to terrorism that centrally locates diverse communities/policing relationships at the heart of the counter-terrorism policing effort. With cross jurisdictional application, the qualitative and quantitative data, will inform a broad scholarship with wide ranging policy implications at both the state and federal level.Read moreRead less
New Initiatives in Enforcing Employment Standards: Assessing the Effectiveness of Federal Government Compliance Strategies. The well-being of more than eight million Australian employees is underpinned by statutory workplace entitlements. For the large majority of those employees, these are set by federal legislation. The statutory entitlements are meaningful only in so far as they are complied with, and improving the effectiveness of the federal enforcement agency, the Workplace Ombudsman, is t ....New Initiatives in Enforcing Employment Standards: Assessing the Effectiveness of Federal Government Compliance Strategies. The well-being of more than eight million Australian employees is underpinned by statutory workplace entitlements. For the large majority of those employees, these are set by federal legislation. The statutory entitlements are meaningful only in so far as they are complied with, and improving the effectiveness of the federal enforcement agency, the Workplace Ombudsman, is therefore of crucial public importance. This project provides the first comprehensive scholarly empirical evaluation of the Workplace Ombudsman. Its findings will identify multiple ways in which enforcement practices can be improved, not only for the Workplace Ombudsman, but also for comparable compliance agencies domestically and overseas.Read moreRead less
Forensic entomology and time of death estimation in Victoria. Assessing time of death is a notoriously difficult, yet critical component of homicide investigations. Forensic entomology can provide reliable death time estimates using detailed knowledge of the ecology and life-history characteristics of local carrion insect species. However, these data are largely unavailable for Victoria and elsewhere on the eastern Australian seaboard. This project will measure growth rates of carrion insect ....Forensic entomology and time of death estimation in Victoria. Assessing time of death is a notoriously difficult, yet critical component of homicide investigations. Forensic entomology can provide reliable death time estimates using detailed knowledge of the ecology and life-history characteristics of local carrion insect species. However, these data are largely unavailable for Victoria and elsewhere on the eastern Australian seaboard. This project will measure growth rates of carrion insect larvae, investigate carrion insect ecology in different habitats, and describe the larval morphology of key species. We will also investigate the efficacy of a new method for estimating time of death using corpse chemistry.Read moreRead less
Validation and Verification of Electronic Evidence: Developing a Testing Regime for Digital Forensic Software Reliability. Law Enforcement is analysing an exponentially-increasing quantity of Electronic Evidence - a 100,000 fold increase was experienced by the NSW police in the last decade. This is clear indication that computer related evidence is now an essential component of traditional crime investigation as well as computer crime. We intend to streamline the investigative process. This can ....Validation and Verification of Electronic Evidence: Developing a Testing Regime for Digital Forensic Software Reliability. Law Enforcement is analysing an exponentially-increasing quantity of Electronic Evidence - a 100,000 fold increase was experienced by the NSW police in the last decade. This is clear indication that computer related evidence is now an essential component of traditional crime investigation as well as computer crime. We intend to streamline the investigative process. This can only occur with the development of a validation framework from which we can build a testing regime to establish reliability of forensic tools and therefore the forensic investigative processes. Read moreRead less
Building rule of law capacity in a transitional state: lessons from the Australian criminal justice assistance programme in Cambodia 1997-2007. Australian overseas aid has recently stressed funding better governance and security as pre-requisites to poverty reduction and economic development. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a long term legal assistance programme designed to strengthen the rule of law in a fragile state such as Cambodia. Police reform in fragile states has often failed ....Building rule of law capacity in a transitional state: lessons from the Australian criminal justice assistance programme in Cambodia 1997-2007. Australian overseas aid has recently stressed funding better governance and security as pre-requisites to poverty reduction and economic development. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a long term legal assistance programme designed to strengthen the rule of law in a fragile state such as Cambodia. Police reform in fragile states has often failed and lessons learnt by the CCJAP over the past 10 years will contribute to our knowledge about the best practices and strategies needed to improve security and governance in fragile states. Capacity building efforts to improve international law enforcement cooperation, especially in regard to counter-terrorism and transnational crime, will benefit from this review.Read moreRead less
Data Exploitation for Critical Infrastructure Protection: Gathering Intelligence from Digital Evidence Collected from IT Networks and Process Control Systems. This proposal addresses the National Priority of Safeguarding Australia and its results will serve as a major input into current Australian Federal Government and Defence initiatives in digital evidence collection and exploitation as part of process control system security. It will play a significant part in satisfying the Australian commu ....Data Exploitation for Critical Infrastructure Protection: Gathering Intelligence from Digital Evidence Collected from IT Networks and Process Control Systems. This proposal addresses the National Priority of Safeguarding Australia and its results will serve as a major input into current Australian Federal Government and Defence initiatives in digital evidence collection and exploitation as part of process control system security. It will play a significant part in satisfying the Australian community that steps are being taken to safeguard national services and will develop techniques for protecting Australia against criminal or terrorist cyber attack on national services infrastructure. It will serve to develop niche Australian research expertise in this very specialised international field.Read moreRead less