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Growth responses to salinity in relation to distribution of two mangrove species, Sonneratia alba and S.lanceolata, in northern Australia
(1995) Ball, M. C.; Pidsley, S. M.
Robodebt and the limits of learning: exploring meaning-making after a crisis
(2025-06-06) Maley, Maria; Casey, Daniel
The flawed Robodebt programme, and its subsequent exposure through a Royal Commission, represented a serious crisis in Australian public administration. A vital task for leaders after a crisis is communication and meaning-making, which is a precondition for learning. Using Freedom of Information material from over 100 agencies, this study investigates whether and how Australian public service leaders communicated with their staff about the meaning of Robodebt and the lessons to be learnt, in the immediate aftermath of the crisis. It finds more than a quarter of public servants did not receive communication from their bureaucratic leaders interpreting the crisis, in the first six months after the Royal Commission reported. When they did, some messages were dismissive, rejecting the idea that there were cultural problems in their agency, and ignoring the fundamental cause of the crisis: over-responsiveness to ministers. Other leaders, however, responded with genuine introspection and engaged with sensitive cultural issues. Organisations often fail to learn after a crisis, particularly where cultural learning is required, or where lessons must ‘travel’ across agencies. Given the limited meaning-making undertaken by many public service leaders, the article questions whether effective post-crisis learning is likely to occur.
Violence in the Library
(2025-06-02) Sastrawan, Wayan Jarrah
There are mounting campaigns to repatriate cultural heritage objects that were wrongfully seized under colonial rule. Studying the history of these objects before their encounters with colonialism is essential to understanding why they remain valuable today. This article investigates the history of a collection of about 500 palm-leaf manuscripts that were looted during the conquest of Lombok by the Netherlands East Indies in late 1894. It shows how the production, purchase, and theft of manuscripts had been intertwined with struggles for power in Bali and Lombok since the seventeenth century. Violence was involved in the very creation of the Lombok Collection, and its seizure by victorious Dutch troops was just another chapter in its long and bloody story. This kind of study is especially urgent as the demand for provenance research grows, because it helps us to better understand the complex historical trajectories of these cultural heritage objects.
Biodiversity conservation attitudes and policy tools for promoting biodiversity in tropical planted forests
(2012-12-13) Nghiem, Nhung
Biodiversity loss poses a real threat to the livelihoods, food security and health of the poor. In Vietnam, nearly 700 species are threatened with national extinction and over 300 species are threatened with global extinction. Deforestation is the main contributor to these biodiversity losses. This study examines biodiversity conservation attitudes of foresters and proposes policy options to promote biodiversity in planted forests. A household survey of 291 foresters in Yen Bai Province, Vietnam, was conducted to examine attitudes to biodiversity conservation. A range of forest policy tools was investigated to find the most appropriate one to enhance biodiversity, given the specific social-economic conditions of foresters. A forest-level optimisation model was employed to design the optimal level of payment for biodiversity conservation. The results suggest that a large number of foresters would agree to the idea of enhancing biodiversity in planted forests if they were financially supported. It is concluded that policy options for the Government of Vietnam include refinements to the current payment scheme and considering increasing the payment level to foresters to enhance biodiversity. These findings may have some generalisability to the plantation forestry sector in other developing countries in tropical zones, and implications for implementing the REDD+ mechanism in developing countries.
Impact of five tobacco endgame strategies on future smoking prevalence, population health and health system costs
(2017-06-24) van der Deen, Frederieke S.; Wilson, Nick; Cleghorn, Christine L.; Kvizhinadze, Giorgi; Cobiac, Linda J.; Nghiem, Nhung; Blakely, Tony
OBJECTIVE: There is growing international interest in advancing 'the tobacco endgame'. We use New Zealand (Smokefree goal for 2025) as a case study to model the impacts on smoking prevalence (SP), health gains (quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs)) and cost savings of (1) 10% annual tobacco tax increases, (2) a tobacco-free generation (TFG), (3) a substantial outlet reduction strategy, (4) a sinking lid on tobacco supply and (5) a combination of 1, 2 and 3.
METHODS: Two models were used: (1) a dynamic population forecasting model for SP and (2) a closed cohort (population alive in 2011) multistate life table model (including 16 tobacco-related diseases) for health gains and costs.
RESULTS: All selected tobacco endgame strategies were associated with reductions in SP by 2025, down from 34.7%/14.1% for Māori (indigenous population)/non-Māori in 2011 to 16.0%/6.8% for tax increases; 11.2%/5.6% for the TFG; 17.8%/7.3% for the outlet reduction; 0% for the sinking lid; and 9.3%/4.8% for the combined strategy. Major health gains accrued over the remainder of the 2011 population's lives ranging from 28 900 QALYs (95% Uncertainty Interval (UI)): 16 500 to 48 200; outlet reduction) to 282 000 QALYs (95%UI: 189 000 to 405 000; sinking lid) compared with business-as-usual (3% discounting). The timing of health gain and cost savings greatly differed for the various strategies (with accumulated health gain peaking in 2040 for the sinking lid and 2070 for the TFG).
CONCLUSIONS: Implementing endgame strategies is needed to achieve tobacco endgame targets and reduce inequalities in smoking. Given such strategies are new, modelling studies provide provisional information on what approaches may be best.