Anita Stuhmcke

A Snapshot in Time: The Changing Systemic Role of the Australian Commonwealth Ombudsman 1

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 15-07-2015

DOI: 10.7603/S40741-014-0014-1

Abstract: The role of the Australian Commonwealth Ombudsman has changed. This change has occurred through operational decision-making rather than through legislative reform. Similarly to many classical ombudsman institutions the Commonwealth Ombudsman has two traditional roles – proactive system fixer and reactive in idual complaint handler. Since the office was introduced in Australian in the 1970s. the emphasis placed upon systemic reform has increased. This change is noteworthy as it is generally assumed that these dual roles are related in that improvements produced by one role will impact upon the other. Here it is most often implied in public law literature, that the correction by an ombudsman of a systemic administrative deficiency through its systemic function will reduce numbers of in idual complaints. Using empirical data based upon a ‘snapshot in time’ study of the Australian Commonwealth Ombudsman this article argues that this traditional assumptions as to the relationship between the two roles is flawed. The findings of the study presented in this article will impact upon the operation of the ombudsman institution and provide insight into ways in which the role and performance of such a growing international integrity review body may be strengthened.

Embryo donation and understanding of kinship: the impact of law and policy.

Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)

Date: 06-12-2017

DOI: 10.1093/HUMREP/DEW297

Extra-Territoriality and Surrogacy: The Problem of State and Territory Moral Sovereignty

Publisher: Routledge

Date: 03-03-2015

DOI: 10.4324/9781315611372

The common law theory and practice of the ombudsman/judiciary relationship

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Date: 26-02-2020

DOI: 10.1177/1473779520904963

Abstract: In both Australia and the United Kingdom, the ombudsman sector plays a specific role in the oversight of the administration of government, but there exists no clear overarching theoretical framework within which the institution is aligned with common law constitutionalism. An ombudsman’s functionality is secured by gaining legal authority from parliament and effective power through executive acquiescence, but simultaneously to function effectively it must maintain a degree of separation from the executive and parliament. This situation creates a regulatory gap which the courts fill by acting in a supervisory relationship over the ombudsman sector. In turn, this raises the danger that the legitimacy gained through judicial oversight results in a loss of flexibility and uniqueness in the ombudsman institution. Through an empirical study of the case law on the sector, this article confirms that the courts have shaped and legitimised the role of the ombudsman institution under the common law constitution. Yet this study also suggests that there is a risk that over-reliance upon the judiciary to perform a retrospective, reactive and intermittent control function can lead to an inappropriate imposition of judicial values on the ombudsman sector as well as the courts performing an unsuited regulatory role.

There is plagiarism … and then there is plagiarism: academic misconduct and admission to legal practice

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Date: 24-04-2020

DOI: 10.1080/09695958.2020.1749058

Government Watchdog Agencies and Administrative Justice

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Date: 08-09-2022

DOI: 10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190903084.013.8

Abstract: Watchdog agencies render government accountable to the citizen and play an important role in raising standards of public administration. Yet, in what is a global phenomenon, watchdog agencies struggle to keep pace with the realities of modern government. Often lacking formal constitutional or legislative protections, watchdog agencies are susceptible to use for political purposes. This article suggests that the normative framing of ‘integrity’ may guard against this structural vulnerability. Australia is discussed as a case study of a jurisdiction where integrity may facilitate the service of watchdog agencies to administrative justice rather than to the underlying administration of the state.

Tick Tock Goes the Clock: Rethinking Policy and Embryo Storage Limits

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 12-2014

DOI: 10.1007/S10691-014-9273-1

Reframing the Australian Medico-Legal Model of Infertility

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 26-02-2021

DOI: 10.1007/S11673-021-10094-3

Teaching Plagiarism: Law Students Really Are That Special

Publisher: Emerald

Date: 07-2011

DOI: 10.1108/00242530610674730

Abstract: To argue that in the knowledge economy, those who are expert in understanding intellectual property issues, such as librarians and information professionals, have a special responsibility for creating policy, encouraging understanding and resolving legal disputes and conflicts unique to this aspect of the information society. One way of achieving this is through the educational impact of systematic information literacy programmes which include intellectual property issues as part of the syllabus. An overview of current practice and current opinion. That the current culture, especially in higher education towards intellectual property rights, remains both confused and confusing, above all for the “information illiterate” starting out on degree‐level programmes. Attitudes and policies need to be clarified so that a coherent approach to a range of different but related intellectual property (IP) matters such as plagiarism, self‐archiving on research repositories and respect for commercially owned copyright material is uniformly developed. Debate must be differentiated from policy which in turn must be implemented via the information literacy (IL) syllabus. This is a statement of opinion that could be tested by practical case study investigation. Suggests that information literacy programmes be promoted as a way of enhancing students' understanding of intellectual property issues. This paper brings together different IP issues which are not normally considered together, such as institutional research repositories, student plagiarism and commercial IP entitlements. It points out ways of unifying these in a single coherent philosophy of information society rights and ownership. This philosophy should form one of the mainstays of the information literacy syllabus.

Judicial analytics and Australian courts: A call for national ethical guidelines

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Date: 13-01-2020

DOI: 10.1177/1037969X19899674

Abstract: Judicial analytics is the use of data to monitor, understand and predict judicial behaviour. This is a global phenomenon and a cause for both celebration and concern. Given the unique role of courts and the potential for judicial analytics to undermine the rule of law, there is a need to review and revise the current inertia in the Australian regulatory approach to this issue. This article calls for the development of professional ethical guidelines for law and other disciplines, to assist and guide the creation and dissemination of predictive judicial analytics.

New wine in old bottles and old wine in new bottles: The judicial response to international commercial surrogacy in the UK and Australia

Publisher: Routledge

Date: 19-06-2015

DOI: 10.4324/9781315767895

The Commonwealth Ombudsman

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Date: 12-2002

DOI: 10.1177/1037969X0703200409

The evolution of the classical ombudsman: a view from the antipodes

Publisher: Inderscience Publishers

Date: 2011

DOI: 10.1504/IJPLAP.2012.045224

Changing relations between government and citizen: Administrative law and the work of the Australian Commonwealth Ombudsman: Research and evaluation

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 19-08-2008

DOI: 10.1111/J.1467-8500.2008.00590.X

Digital Platform Complaint Handling: Options for an External Dispute Resolution Scheme

Publisher: University of Technology Sydney

Date: 2022

DOI: 10.26195/7M5K-WP38

The illusory dichotomy of plagiarism

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Date: 17-06-2015

DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2015.1053428

Open Justice, Efficient Justice and the Rule of Law: The Increasing Invisibility of Special Leave to Appeal Applications in the High Court of Australia

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Date: 03-03-2020

DOI: 10.1177/0067205X20906031

Abstract: This article examines the application of the rule of law to special leave to appeal applications (‘SLAs’) in the High Court of Australia. SLAs are a fusion of administrative and judicial power. As an administrative tool, determinations of SLAs are a workload filter, limiting the appeals heard by the Court. As an exercise of judicial power, SLA determinations have significant impact upon the parties to litigation and the development of substantive law. Presenting the findings of data analysis of the determination of SLAs in the High Court of Australia from 2013 to 2015, we identify the loss of publicly available information brought about by changes to the High Court Rules in 2016. Using this evidence, we argue that the current administration of SLAs preferences efficiency to the detriment of public confidence in the administration of justice. We suggest facilitating the rule of law through publication of the written submissions for SLAs.

How are complementary health professions regulated in Australia? An examination of complementary health professions in the national registration and accreditation scheme

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 04-2018

DOI: 10.1016/J.CTIM.2017.12.012

Abstract: This study aims to provide an empirical examination of how complementary medicine practice in Australia is actually regulated under the current national registration model. Data was obtained from Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) Annual Reports for the years 2011/12-2014/15 and supplemented by the Chinese Medical Registration Board of Victoria (CMRBV) Annual Reports in 2011/12 for Chinese Medicine complaints. The data analysed includes complaint statistics, stage of closure of complaints and the outcome of complaints concerning Chinese medicine, chiropractic and osteopathy under the National Law. During 2014-2015 the number of complaints per 100 registrants for was highest for the medical board (4.4), while much lower for the chiropractic (1.5), osteopath (0.7) and Chinese medicine (0.5) boards. For conventional boards, 58% of complaints were closed at the assessment stage, while 57%, 29% and 16% of complaints to the osteopath, Chinese medicine and chiropractic boards respectively were closed at the assessment stage. The decision to suspend or cancel registration of health professionals was 17% from the Chinese medicine board, 14% from the Osteopathy Board, 1.5% from the chiropractor board and 0.6% from the medical board. It appears that complementary medicine practitioner regulation works at least as well as conventional regulation, and at most complementary medicine boards take a stricter interpretation of misconduct though more research would need to be undertaken to state this definitively. Our findings indicate that the public are using the statutory complaint mechanisms available to them with respect to the three CM groups.

Learning from Cross-Border Reproduction.

Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)

Date: 10-01-2017

DOI: 10.1093/MEDLAW/FWW045

Reflections on autonomy in travel for cross border reproductive care

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 16-01-2021

DOI: 10.1007/S40592-020-00125-X

The Ombudsman

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Date: 13-02-2014

DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781107445734.018

Assisted reproductive technologies, the Internet and information seeking: a case study of Australian women using peer online forums to seek donor eggs across borders

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Date: 21-02-2020

DOI: 10.1080/09718524.2020.1719597

The Rise of the Australian Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 02-2002

DOI: 10.1016/S0308-5961(01)00054-4

The role of Australian ombudsmen in the protection and promotion of human rights

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Date: 08-2010

DOI: 10.1080/1323238X.2010.11910878

The Criminal Act Of Commercial Surrogacy In Australia: A Call For Review

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 2011

DOI: 10.2139/SSRN.2310418

The failure of contemporary law and regulation to keep pace with growing complementary medicine (CM) use: The significance of examining ‘hidden’ gaps in Australia's current regulatory and legislative infrastructure

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 08-2016

DOI: 10.1016/J.AIMED.2016.11.002

Macquarie University

Location: Australia

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University Of Technology Sydney

Location: Australia

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Australian National University

Location: Australia

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University Of Sydney

Location: Australia

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Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP230101322

Start Date: 2023

End Date: 12-2025

Amount: $386,451.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE130100118

Start Date: 2013

End Date: 12-2014

Amount: $290,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE210100043

Start Date: 05-2021

End Date: 05-2022

Amount: $539,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE180100048

Start Date: 06-2018

End Date: 12-2019

Amount: $499,899.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE150100051

Start Date: 02-2015

End Date: 06-2016

Amount: $410,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP130100382

Start Date: 07-2013

End Date: 06-2016

Amount: $150,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP0986213

Start Date: 02-2009

End Date: 12-2013

Amount: $304,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP150101057

Start Date: 2015

End Date: 07-2020

Amount: $421,500.00

Funder: Australian Research Council