Material well-being in the Australian welfare state. This project will use Australian Bureau of Statistics data on incomes, wealth and time use to construct a picture of material well-being in contemporary Australia. The results will show how material well-being relates to stages in the life cycle, to family types, and to relative affluence and relative poverty. Comparisons will be drawn between these results and a similar Australian study based on data from the late 1980s. International compari ....Material well-being in the Australian welfare state. This project will use Australian Bureau of Statistics data on incomes, wealth and time use to construct a picture of material well-being in contemporary Australia. The results will show how material well-being relates to stages in the life cycle, to family types, and to relative affluence and relative poverty. Comparisons will be drawn between these results and a similar Australian study based on data from the late 1980s. International comparisons will also be attempted. The findings provide important guidelines for public policy and especially for welfare policy.Read moreRead less
Protecting while they prosper? Organisational responses to whistleblowing. This project aims to examine the adequacy of organisational responses to whistleblowing (employee reporting of wrongdoing). So far, research into public-interest whistleblowing has revealed much about the incidence, significance and experience of whistleblowers. This project now extends the research to the other side of the issue — the organisations. By comparing employee and managerial experience in multiple public and p ....Protecting while they prosper? Organisational responses to whistleblowing. This project aims to examine the adequacy of organisational responses to whistleblowing (employee reporting of wrongdoing). So far, research into public-interest whistleblowing has revealed much about the incidence, significance and experience of whistleblowers. This project now extends the research to the other side of the issue — the organisations. By comparing employee and managerial experience in multiple public and private sector organisations in Australia and New Zealand, the project intends to identify the factors that influence good and bad responses across a range of institutions; provide a clearer basis for reform of policies, procedures and law; and set benchmarks for comparative research worldwide.Read moreRead less
Understanding political debate and policy decisions using big data. This project aims to empirically test a novel framework for analysing the relationship between political debates and policy decisions. Using digital sources and computational modelling approaches, it will investigate three specific issues to test this framework. These issues, all drawn from different policy sectors, will be examined as a series of debates linked to specific decisions, over the last two decades. The expected outc ....Understanding political debate and policy decisions using big data. This project aims to empirically test a novel framework for analysing the relationship between political debates and policy decisions. Using digital sources and computational modelling approaches, it will investigate three specific issues to test this framework. These issues, all drawn from different policy sectors, will be examined as a series of debates linked to specific decisions, over the last two decades. The expected outcomes will provide insights into links between political debates and policy decisions with potential benefits for politics and policy-making.Read moreRead less
Assessing and addressing tax system complexity in Australia. Tax reform and simplification are highly topical in government, business and the wider community, with many initiatives proposed or under way. This project will identify the key factors in tax system complexity, measure the costs it imposes upon taxpayers and develop complexity indices that can test new policy measures and monitor improvements.
Indigenous participation in a low-carbon economy. Australia’s transition towards a low-carbon economy will cause changes in skill requirements and raises the need to maximise Aboriginal participation. This innovative project will provide a better understanding of what is required for this to occur and showcase a new way of developing educational and training strategies for Indigenous engagement.