School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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ItemThe women on the hill : an ethnographic study of deinstitutionalization(University of Melbourne, 1995)
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ItemThe status of women in Islam : a case study of Pakistan(University of Melbourne, 1999)
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ItemJohn Cain and Victorian Labor 1917-1957( 1979)This thesis is partly a study of the Victorian Labor party's parliamentary performance, partly of the party's organizational wing, and to lesser extent it examines relations between the state Executive and the Trades Hall Council. This thesis is also the study of one man, John Cain, Victoria’s only really successful Labor leader. From an Irish, Catholic rural background, he joined the Victorian Socialist party and by 1917 won the state seat of Jika Jika (later Northcote). An earnest parliamentarian with good political and administrative skills, he fought his way to the Labor leadership by 1937 and was eventually Premier for three terms -1943. 1945-1947, and 1952-1955. He dies in 1957. (From synopsis)
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Item“The Age” on public affairs from 1861 to 1881( 1950)At the present, time, we may buy the Age in Melbourne every morning except Sunday for twopence. It enjoys the reputation for being a reliable newspaper, not sensationalist, and only using its largest headlines for some matter of real importance, not of just passing popular interest. Its leaders are serious, thoughtful, with a tendency to the left rather than to the right; but not expressing merely the views of any one political party. Once, the Age was the organ of change. It persistently opposed what it called the pretences of the wealthy - the squatters and the importers. It was a popular paper, pleading for the small man, to give him a place to live his own life and work for himself. Today, we may still find the same old tone, upholding the rights of the individual against the attempts of the large group, who threaten to absorb him. It no longer has the highest circulation among Melbourne papers. The tabloid press has outstripped it in that. I have looked at the Age in this earlier period to find out what it was like, and what it was saying. In this thesis I am trying to give an account of what the Age said about some important matters of public interest during the years 1861 to 1881. A newspaper, in giving the news and in reviewing it in articles, deals with many sides of the community's life. In order to bring the subject of this thesis within a reasonable compass, attention has been given to certain subjects only which happened to be dealt with by the Age in these years. These are the opening of the land in Victoria, the introduction of protective tariffs, and the struggle over a number of years between the lower and upper houses in the Victorian Parliament as constituted in 1854. Since the Age spoke most frankly and forcefully on these matters, some attempt will be made to estimate how much it influenced public opinion in these matters. (From Chapter 1)
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ItemVoting in Australian State and Federal elections 1937-1961( 1966)The main aim of this work has been to compare voting in elections for the lower Houses of the State and Federal Parliaments and to illustrate the complications of federalism. In so doing, I have also been concerned to examine the effects of different electoral systems at the two levels of government, (particularly the different methods of weighting used in the various states) and to look at the working of those distinctively Australian features – compulsory and preferential voting. Though the title of the thesis is limited to the period 1937 to 1961 this has not been strictly adhered to. It has been found convenient to extend comparisons by including the state elections in Western Australia of 1936 and in New South Wales of 1962. There are great problems in the handling and comparison of electoral statistics : Uncontested seats, changes due to redistributions of electoral boundaries and the identification of party affiliations of candidates are among the most obvious. On many occasions, and particularly in attempts to assess the under- or over-representation of parties, I have used adjusted election figures including allowances for uncontested seats and seats not contested by two major parties. Any such adjustments are necessarily arbitrary, but I have endeavoured to make clear when adjusted figures were being used and , where necessary, to indicate the limited nature of the material available. For some state elections the figures are far more “usable” than for others so I have done what seemed possible in the light of the material. This has made for a good deal of unevenness. No attempt has been made to treat each state uniformly. Though Victoria and New South Wales have been studied in most detail, even here different aspects have been stressed. Dissident party groups and candidates have been more fully treated in New South Wales. In Victoria the longer periods between redistributions and the recent “tow-for-one” system of electoral boundaries has made a more detailed comparison of voting at state and federal elections possible. The study has been limited to elections for the Commonwealth Parliament and the lower Houses of the State Parliaments. Since the interest has largely centred on the working of single-member electorate systems there has been no detailed discussion of the methods used to elect The Tasmanian House of Assembly or the Commonwealth Senate, though some analysis of voting for both these bodies has been included. (From Introduction).
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ItemA failed innovation?: General practitioners in community health centres( 1993)This paper seeks to examine central policy and practice issues arising out of the presence of doctors in community health centres. The community health program was shaped by the Whitlam era and there were great hopes for its success in delivering new forms of health services. Integral to it was the presence of G.P.'s working from community health centres. The research aims at discovering whether or not community health has successfully incorporated G.P.'s into the program. (From Introduction)
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ItemBlue army: paramilitary policing in Victoria( 1998)This thesis focuses on the changes to law enforcement precipitated by the establishment of counter terrorist squads within State police forces during the late 1970's. It looks at the impact of Victoria's specialist counter terrorist squad, the Special Operations Group (SOG), on policing in Victoria and asks whether the group has led to the development of a more 'military based' approach to policing. The research demonstrates that the SOG has been the harbinger of more military styles of policing involving high levels of confrontation, more lethal weapons and a greater range of weapons and more frequent recourse to deadly force. The establishment of groups like the SOG has also undermined Australia's democratic traditions by blurring the boundaries between the police and military and weakening the safeguards which have in then past prevented military force being used against citizens. The SOG has acted as a vanguard group within Victoria police, anticipating and leading progress towards a range of new military-style tactics and weapons. The SOG, although relatively small in number,, has had a marked influence on the tactics and operations of police throughout the force. The group was never contained to dealing with only terrorist incidents but instead used for a range of more traditional police duties. While terrorism has remained rare in Australia the SOG has nevertheless expanded in size and role. Because the SOG is considered elite and because the SOG are frequently temporarily seconded to other areas of policing, SOG members provide a role for other police and have the opportunity to introduce parliamentary tactics into an extended range of police duties. The parliamentary skills developed by the SOG have been passes on to ordinary police through training programs headed by former SOG officers. In addition, the group has effectively been used as a testing ground for new weapons. The structure of the Victoria Police Protective Security Group and the way public demonstrations and industrial disputes are viewed in police and security circles ensure that parliamentary counter terrorist tactics will be used to stifle dissent and protest. The move towards paramilitary policing is necessarily a move away from the police mandate to protect life, keep the peace and use only minimum force. The interrogation of SOG and SOG tactics into everyday policing has occurred without any public debate or recognition of the important democratic traditions that have ensured that military force is not used against citizens except in the most extreme circumstances. Although the SOG is not formally part of the military it is nevertheless a significant parliamentary force virtually indistinguishable in terms of the weapons and levels of force at its disposal from the military proper.
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ItemSatanic cults: ritual crime allegations and the false memory syndrome( 1993)My interest in criminology was inspired by Dennis Challinger who tolerated a student taking ten years to finish the Diploma in Criminology, and Stan Johnson who encouraged broad-mindedness to which I was unaccustomed. Stan challenged my attitudes, beliefs and conclusions. My interest in cults was inspired by Anne Hamilton-Byrne whose "children'" especially Sarah, taught me a great deal. They introduced me to their personal experience of growing up in strange isolation from the world. I received assistance and constructive criticism from the police Task Force investigating the Hamilton-Byrne “Family” especially Detective Sergeant DeMan. I began this task searching to understand “The Family”, its origins and its meaning. The path towards an understanding of cults took me in unexpected directions. I learned about the Satanic allegations and began accumulating material. Initially, some therapists with an interest in this area saw me as a potential ally, but as I began to question there assumptions I was rejected as a disbeliever, on the basis that “anyone who is not with us, must be against us”.
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ItemDealing with deviance in contemporary Papua New Guinea societies: the choice of sanctions in village and local court proceedings( 1996-05)Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a country composed of thousands of tribes, clans, cultures and customs, with well over a hundred languages and totemic groupings spread sparsely across its lands (Bonney 1986: 2) (see Map A). Today the country has a total population of four million people (NSO 1991). Before colonisation, Papua New Guinea’s indigenous settlement patterns and social organisation reflected the fragmented nature of the country’s environment, its isolation from the eastern and western centres of civilisation, and the needs of small-scale subsistence economies. Over thousands of years, Melanesian societies have been too diverse for any particular area or group to typify the country’s culture or to maintain a dominant role within government. Deviance, regulatory mechanisms and methods used by each tribe or cultural group to resolve disputes, varied according to the community’s culture and customs. At the time of colonisation the indigenous people were artificially united in one nation-state. With the introduction of Western social, political, economic and judicial systems, they were forced to live under alien dispute resolution procedures and to accept an imposed Western system of sanctions, which overlaid or supplemented the customary dispute resolution procedures. Since colonisation, a Western legal system of sanctions has been imposed on Papua New Guineans in which the colonialists have overlooked traditional, unwritten customary systems.
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ItemPauline, politics and psychoanalysis: theorising racism in Australia( 1999)This thesis uses a psychoanalytic approach to examine the phenomenon of the rise of the Pauline Hanson and the One Nation political party. Psychoanalysis, as the discipline concerned with developing an understanding of irrationality and the human emotions, is well-placed to tackle issues such as insecurity, resentment and racism. By reviewing the works of a number of psychoanalytic theorists, this thesis suggests ways that they may help us to understand the success of One Nation in Australia. Through this approach, I aim to bring new insights to the study of racism in contemporary Australia. The first part of this thesis consists of a survey of the contentions of six key psychoanalytic theorists. This analysis shows that psychoanalysis affords us an understanding of the subject as a complex being; attached to, and even constituted by, certain images and ideals. In the second section, I suggest ways in which psychoanalytic theory may assist us to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the Pauline Hanson phenomenon. This analysis deals with only a few selected aspects of Hansonism, but to the extent that this can be seen as a synecdoche of the whole, it suggests that the attainment of a full understanding of racism and the human emotions is more complex and difficult task than we often acknowledge.
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