Economics - Theses
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ItemFeasibility analysis for property development( 1989)The success of property developers and investors in property is significantly predicated by accurate feasibility analysis of development projects. Initially, this report refines the method of feasibility analysis currently used by Lend Lease Development (VIC). The refined lump sum profit feasibility analysis is then compared with the net present value analysis, and found to be inferior. This is particularly apparent when delays at the commencement or during the development occur. This report proposes that even after refinement the current feasibility package may inaccurately forecast development profits. In its place I recommend net present value analysis of development projects and the consideration of numerous qualitative influences. The data used to draw the above mentioned conclusions in this report comes from three recently completed developments by Lend Lease Development (VIC), in three building sectors.
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ItemWardley v. Ansett: an examination and analysis of a leading and influential equal opportunity case( 1987)The aim of this paper is to examine Deborah Wardley's lengthy and costly struggle to become a trainee pilot with Ansett Airlines. This struggle began in February 1976 when Deborah (then) Lawrie lodged an application with Ansett. Ansett finally offered her employment some 3 1/2 years later after the company had been found guilty of discriminating against her on the basis of her sex and were ordered to accept her as a trainee. The protracted legal battles continued however and over 4 years elapsed before Mrs. Wardley's trainee position was secured. The examination constitutes a chronicle of the facts as well as the judicial aspects of the dispute from the attempts at conciliation by the Victorian Commissioner for Equal Opportunity through proceedings at the Equal Opportunity Board, the Supreme Court of Victoria and the High Court of Australia. At the time of the complaint by Miss Lawrie, the Equal Opportunity Act was in its infancy and the Ansett/Wardley case was the first Victorian Equal Opportunity matter to be heard by the judicial system. The examination also includes a range of ancilliary issues that impacted on the case which, together with the legal precedents set by the case, have had important consequences on community and employer attitudes to equal employment opportunity generally and sex discrimination in particular. These ancilliary issues include the media/public attention given to the case, the involvement of women's groups, the particular attitudes and tactics adopted by Sir Reginald Ansett and his company and the personal characteristics of Mrs. Wardley herself. The examination concludes with an analysis of the case, and the key factors that made it unique and of historical importance. Moreover, the peculiar characteristics of the case raise important issues about the effectiveness of equal opportunity legislation in eliminating sex discrimination in employment.
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ItemThe growth and development of the Commissioners' Savings Banks in Victoria 1875-1900( 1973)I have chosen the years 1875-1900 in the history of the Commissioners’ Saving Banks in Victoria (forerunners of the State Savings Bank) because this short span contained so many momentous events in Australian banking history, and it is tempting to fit the institution into the overall picture, but also because it embraced the second major period of expansion of the network of offices, and saw a dramatic change in the role and function of the Savings Bank. The previous period of expansion had occurred largely as the result of the discovery of gold in the 1850s and the need for saving facilities in country districts. It had come to an end because of the Commissioners’ inability to satisfy the requests for further Savings Banks with the limited resources at their disposal. This inability led them to suggest the establishment of post office savings bank facilities, with the expectation, it has been claimed that these new offices be entrusted to their supervision. This was not to be so but the commissioners nevertheless welcomed the new system as providing a satisfactory means of reaching the small saver in all the settled areas of the colony and relieving them of the costly obligation of opening further offices. From 1862 until 1879, therefore, no addition to the existing network of Banks was contemplated and this period quite clearly separates and defines the two periods of expansion. The second expansionary phase, with which we are about to deal, was a largely metropolitan one and therefore entirely different from its predecessor. It was essentially part of that remarkable period in Victorian economic history, the 1880s and 1890s, during which there was so much expansion in Melbourne in the fields of construction and public transport, but also in the realms of finance. Much has been written about the various other financial organisations that grew and proliferated as a result of the very extensive overseas borrowing and the buoyancy of the export market for the colony’s staples, but the savings banks have largely been neglected. This is surprising for they were well established in eastern Australia before the 1880s and played a not insignificant role in the events of the two decades prior to 1900. In Melbourne, particularly, the path pursued by the Commissioners’ Savings Banks so closely paralleled the course of economic events that it is possible to gain considerable insight into the manner in which ordinary business decision were influenced by and contributed to the cumulative optimism of the boom and, conversely, how they collectively accentuated the rigours of the ensuing depression.