Economics - Theses
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ItemGay print media’s golden era: Australian magazines and newspapers 1970-2000( 2015)The late 20th century was a golden era for Australian gay print media: more than five million copies annually of gay and lesbian publications were printed at its peak, with revenues of nearly eight million dollars a year. Yet there was not even a leaflet before 1969 because homosexuals then did not dare to publish in the climate of active oppression. Growing liberal attitudes within sections of broader society, and, at a practical level, reform of censorship laws made gay publishing possible. The remarkable growth of this industry stands as testimony to the dramatic change in mainstream society’s attitudes towards homosexuality, and changes within the gay community itself, during the final decades of last century. From 1970 to 2000 nearly 100 significant magazines and newspapers were produced around the country. Publishers used print media to advance gay movement aims, despite pursuing a variety of visions and goals for how they saw a better world for gay and lesbian people. Their publications allowed discussion of what it meant to be gay or lesbian in Australia; provided an arena to present positive viewpoints regarding homosexuality that countered dominant mainstream attitudes; and brought people together through personal classifieds and information about bars and other community activities. In order to sustain their businesses, publishers took commercial opportunities presented to them. And they needed to expand their operation to attract readers and advertisers. This offered economic viability to the publications, and allowed publishers to sustain a reliable workforce and improve their product. All publishers were forced to deal with the business side of their operation, which often caused tension between their initial goals for a better world and the need to run the business. A key resolution of this tension came through adopting the promotion and defence of community as a primary political project. This allowed publishers to freely develop synergies with advertisers that helped build and develop community infrastructure, such as venues, festivals, and small businesses. Expansion of the sector magnified the impact of this synergy on the community’s growth. It allowed movement ideas and information on community activities to reach and influence a much wider audience, and the day-to-day pursuit of business activity, in particular advertising revenue and distribution outlets led to a myriad of direct relationships with mainstream society that challenged prejudice and helped normalise homosexuality.
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ItemEmployee participation and industrial democracy in Australian government employment: 1983-1988( 1990-05)The subject of employee participation in the public sector has been neglected in the academic literature of Australia. The present research aims to redress this deficiency. Its explicit focus is employee participation in Australian Government Employment (AGE) in the first six years of the Hawke Labor Government, that is, the period 1983-1988. The choice of this period is an important one. The election of the Hawke Government marks a turning point in Australian public administration: this was a government committed to the thoroughgoing reform of the public sector and employee participation was integrated into its reform agenda, albeit in the guise of industrial democracy. In the first part of the thesis the discussion clarifies the meaning and relationship between the concepts of employee participation and industrial democracy. This is followed by a review of the overseas literature on employee participation in public employment. In the second part, the development of employee participation in AGE is dealt with at a general level. This account spans the period 1901-1988, however, the account of the sub-period 1983-1988 is more detailed. In the third and fourth parts, the exposition becomes more specific. Detailed case studies of Australia Post and the Australian Taxation Office, which provide an account of the development of employee participation ranging from the national to the workplace level of each organization, are presented. In the final part, the discussion is drawn together and the lessons of the recent experience of employee participation in AGE are spelt out.
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ItemA history of the Institute of Public Affairs( 1989)This thesis covers the history of the Institute of Public Affairs (the IPA) from its formation late in 1942 to the end of 1988. Some significant events in the early part of 1989, such as the resignation of director Rod Kemp, have of necessity had to be omitted.
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ItemRailways and the development of Victoria, 1860-1900( 1973)This thesis attempts to assess the role of the railways in the economic development of Victoria in the nineteenth century. Although both forward and backward linkages are examined the main emphasis is on the forward linkage effects of the provision of railway services and reductions in freight rates. Considerable attention is devoted to the criteria used in formulating railway tariff policies. Throughout the nineteenth century railway managers were expected to operate the railways without incurring deficits but at the same time there were constant pressures, from both within and outside parliament, for railways to play a developmental role regardless of revenue considerations. There was no satisfactory resolution of the conflict between the rating criteria, and consequently railway rate adjustments tended to be ad hoc political responses to changing economic and social circumstances. In Victoria the railways were built and operated by the state and in a very real way they served as the instrument for the implementation of the social philosophy of the community. This was particularly so in regard to the development of agriculture and the railways were an essential complement to the land legislation which aimed at settling a considerable agricultural population in the countryside. Not only did the railways provide the essential transport infrastructure for an export orientated economy, but the extension of lines and downward adjustments of freight rates helped agriculture to remain viable during a long period of falling prices and declining yields. The railways exercised a considerable influence over the geographical pattern of economic activity in Victoria. In particular the differential rating system stimulated the growth of processing industries and commercial activity in Melbourne to the detriment of the inland towns. Preferential rates were used to attract the Riverina trade to Melbourne and in some cases were consciously used to favour metropolitan over provincial manufacturers. By providing an efficient and cheap transport system which served nearly every part of the colony the Victorian railways played an indispensible role in the economic development of Victoria in the nineteenth century. Railway investment and rating policies served the economic and social aspirations of the people then and provided the basis for further continuing development.
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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.