School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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ItemConsuming Asianness in Australia : identity, capital and class( 2004)In this thesis I aim to investigate the consumption of 'Asianness' in Australian society. I account for the actions of individuals and groups who, during the Keating era of government, acted upon the Keating rhetoric of engagement with Asia by exhibiting a desire for 'Asianness'. I use the term 'Asianness' to include all goods and knowledge that have, or are informed by, a distinctly Asian identity, including Asian art, spirituality, design, fashion, food and business practice. I argue that the consumption of 'Asianness' by such individuals and groups is a means to attain distinction; it is a marker of identity which has particular meaning and currency in Australian society. I investigate this phenomenon by firstly providing a genealogy of the idea of Asia in the Australian national psyche. Australia's relationship with Asia at the beginning of the nineteenth century was dominated by a mood of fear and hostility. However, amongst some members of the population an interest in Asia was exhibited. It is this dichotomy of fear and desire which is the hallmark of Australia's relationship with Asia. I argue that the idea of Asia at the turn of the century and beyond played an integral role in the construction of the Australian nation. It is important to document the history of the relationship between Asia an Australia before moving on to examine the shift in Australia's attitudes towards Asia during the Keating era. No longer feared or hated, Asia was perceived as desirable in a variety of ways. It is the refashioning of attitudes towards Asia, and therefore Australian identity, by the Keating government which is detailed in chapter two. I argue that under the discourse of multiculturalism in the 1990s 'Asianness' was conceived as a commodity to be consumed by the Australian public. Through a number of examples from national broadsheets and magazines I detail the pervasiveness of this consumption in everyday life. In answering the question of who consumes 'Asianness' in Australian society and why? I have found the work of Pierre Bourdieu to be instructive. Bourdieu allows us to explain why certain people consume particular goods and the motivation behind such consumption choices. I argue that the consumption of 'Asianness' is an activity which is indicative of a particular group in Australian society; the cosmopolitan class. Termed 'cosmo-multiculturalists' by Ghassan Hage (1998), this group of Australians came to prominence during the Keating era. It is through the consumption of 'Asianness' that this group distinguishes itself from others.
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ItemImpact of DNA profiling on the criminal justice system( 1994-08)The innovative forensic technique of DNA profiling has been acclaimed as the most important advance in forensic science since fingerprinting. Whilst there is much anecdotal information on the impact of DNA profiling on criminal investigation, prosecution and adjudication, there is little quantitative and control comparison data on the routine use of forensic DNA profiling. This study evaluates the effect of the introduction of DNA profiling in Victoria on a number of key points in the criminal justice system. The overall impact of DNA profiling was low as determined by the percentage of criminal cases which utilise DNA profiling. However, in certain classes of cases its impact was measurable, most notably in sex offences committed by “strangers”. Less than one quarter of sexual offence cases of DNA profiled resulted in a contested trial, suggesting that the focus of DNA profiling on the criminal justice system should swing to the pre-trial phase. DNA profiling was most often used in sexual offence cases and a database comparison of these cases before and after the advent of DNA profiling was examined. Whilst not statistically significant, trends indicated there were more solved cases, more guilty pleas and fewer trials after the introduction of DNA profiling, but more individuals were drawn into the investigatory process. The number of trials of sexual offences in which consent was an issue was slightly greater than previously. The increase in guilty pleas with DNA profiling was only for stranger type crime. Further research is recommended as DNA profiling becomes the cornerstone of biological forensic analysis.
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ItemAn evaluation of the Costigan Royal Commission into the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union, 1980-1984, as a political response to organised crime( 1990)This thesis is an evaluation of the Costigan Royal Commission into the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union (1980-1984) as a political response to organised crime. The focus of the study is the extent to which the Costigan Royal Commission was effective in achieving the aims of such an inquiry according to criteria based largely, but not exclusively, on Woodward's framework for the 'success' of Royal commissions. This thesis argues that the Costigan Royal Commission was largely effective as a political response to organised crime for a number of reasons but that a variety of factors impacting on the role of Royal commissions served to restrict its effectiveness as an instrument of reform. A sub-thesis argued here is that a more effective response to organised crime is possible utilising other politically initiated mechanisms (such as a permanent authority on crime and corruption), but that, nonetheless, the Costigan Royal Commission was able to achieve more in relation to serious organised criminal activity than traditional law enforcement agencies were (or are) capable of achieving. The analytical section of the thesis focuses on the extent to which the Costigan Commission's recommendations have been translated into substantive and procedural law reform, in addition to a critical assessment of the political response of commissioning governments made to these recommendations.
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ItemWaiting to be heard: a discussion of feminism, criminology and Aboriginal women offenders( 1998)This thesis evaluates studies which have been carried out with women offenders, and in particular it focuses on the apparent silence in these studies of Aboriginal women offenders about their treatment by the criminal justice system. Aboriginal women are in a significantly disadvantaged position in society compared with non-indigenous women including, in particular, the level of incarceration. However, there has been no direct interviewing with Aboriginal women about their experiences of prosecution and sentencing practice in Australia. It has therefore been very difficult to determine the effect of race on the arrest and sentencing of Aboriginal women. I begin by considering a specific case example. In 1988, an Aboriginal woman, Robyn Kina, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of her de-facto husband after a four hour trial in which she was discouraged from giving evidence in her defence. Kina's silence led to a great miscarriage of justice. I argue that Aboriginal women offenders like Kina should be allowed to voice their experiences to assist police and judges in understanding their disadvantage in the criminal justice system. Feminist criminology has been concerned with advancing the research about women and crime, however it has only recently considered many issues concerning black women and crime. I argue that this is possibly because of the emphasis given by the predominantly white women's movement to advancing women's position as a whole, rather than taking account of issues effecting black women. I point out that theorising about gender and race has methodological implications for a white woman researcher who seeks to understand the matrix of oppression which black women experience. Having explored the theoretical debates about race, gender and crime, I turn to empirical studies. Given the paucity of research into Aboriginal women and crime, I examine overseas research. This research is inconsistent about the unequal treatment of black and white offenders. What we do know is that women of colour will have a very different experience of the criminal justice system than white women. They may also have different experiences from each other. This thesis concludes by suggesting that the lack of theoretical and empirical work in Australia results in the continuation of gender and race typifications being imposed on Aboriginal women by the criminal justice system. In trying to speak for all women, feminist criminology is in danger of silencing Aboriginal women unless it seeks out their views and enables them to speak.
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ItemOpposition to nuclear weapons in Australia, 1949-1965( 1982)This thesis aims to examine the importance and implications of the opposition expressed towards nuclear weapons in Australia between 1949 and 1965. Such opposition can be manifested in many different ways. At one level it may be seen in the unformed misgivings about the possible effects of nuclear weapons tests; it may be expressed as a fear for one's life and one’s children if a nuclear war were to break out. Opposition on this most general level may not be expressed outside a small circle of family and acquaintances. It helps to form a background against which a political culture is developed and in which more organised forms of opposition can emerge. The thesis is primarily concerned with these organised forms of opposition, with those who went beyond a vague feeling of unease and possibly of helplessness to form groups to study the issue, who devoted significant effort to working for the abolition of nuclear weapons and who tried to influence the political processes by joining protest marches, writing letters, or lobbying politicians. Throughout the thesis their activities are set within the general political climate of the time, both within Australia and internationally, and the varying influences of the period on anti-nuclear activists form an important aspect of this work.(From Introduction)
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ItemCatholic judgements on the origin and growth of the Australian Labor Party dispute 1954-1961( 1967)This is a study of how Catholics in Australia have assessed the dispute which has affected the Australian Labor Party and Australian Society, from 1954-1961. It examines what Catholics have said and written about the causes of the original dispute and the way it has developed. The study examines seven main themes: -the history of communist activity in Australia's trade unions; the origin and growth of the Catholic Social Studies Movement (better known as 'The Movement•); the role of the Industrial Groups and ‘The Movement’ in the politics of the Australian Labor Party; the growth of two Labor Parties; the divisions which the dispute caused in Australian society generally and in the Catholic community in particular; the problem of conscience for the individual Catholic in politics; the problem of church-state relations in a pluralist society. Part I is a background study (1941-1954) of the various forces that clashed in the dispute. Part II is a chronological account of the course of the dispute from 1954 until 1961. Part III is an evaluation of the four main Catholic viewpoints on the causes and progress of the dispute. I have devoted considerable space to Parts I and II for two reasons. First, there is no one satisfactory narrative of the events that led up to the dispute in 1954 and that followed it. Second, some such chronological account is needed if all that was said about the dispute is to be intelligible. I have chosen 1961 as the year at which to terminate the study because by that time each main Catholic group had stated its case fully. Whatever each group has said since then has been mainly a re-statement of previous positions. A note is needed on the nature of the evidence available. In general there is a mass of written material in Catholic papers which presents problems of selection. But a greater problem is the uneven distribution of such comment; for example, the Melbourne Advocate and the Sydney Catholic Weekly, being weeklies, commented much more frequently on the dispute than did the monthly Catholic Worker. Those persons representing the viewpoint of Catholics who remained in the Labor Party after 1954 have commented even less than the Catholic Worker. I have tried to supplement this lack of written information on some viewpoints by extensive interviewing of some of the key figures in the dispute. (Here, too, there were difficulties: for example, the ALP parliamentary leader, A.A. Calwell, declined to be interviewed). In all I spent 116 hours interviewing thirty of the main actors in the drama in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane. Here, a problem of evidence was the sometimes fading memories of some of those interviewed ten years after the events they were discussing. With some of this evidence, therefore, allowance must be made for possible, inaccuracies. Yet another problem was striking a balance with conflicting information from interested parties to the dispute. Since a thesis of this type cannot deal in detail with every aspect of this dispute, it might be well to mention some of the issues one would have liked to treat in greater depth had there been room. Some of these questions are: the impact of federalism or the federal structure of bodies like the Australian Labor Party, 'The Movement' and, to some extent, the Catholic Church, on the behaviour of regional units of these bodies; the development of Catholic Social theory as a result of 'The Movement' experience and the Labor Party split; the sociological changes in the Catholic community since the split within the Labor Party and within the Catholic Church; the changing patterns of Australian Catholics' political participation. All these enticing questions can only be touched on more briefly than one would have liked.
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ItemThe Australian Federal Labour Party 1900-1905( 1959)In the ten years before the proclamation of the Commonwealth on 1st January, 1901, Labour Parties established themselves firmly in the colonial parliaments of New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia and began to exert and influence on legislative programmes which had hitherto been prepared with little regard for the interests of the workers. In Victoria the Labour Party founded in 1892 developed more slowly, and in Western Australia and Tasmania unionists were still engaged in establishing permanent political organisations in the late ‘nineties, but throughout Australia it was clear by federation that the representatives of organised Labour were to be a permanent feature of the parliamentary scene.
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ItemBlue murder: press coverage of fatal shootings of and by police in Victoria( 1994)This study is a qualitative content analysis of two newspapers' coverage of three fatal shootings in Victoria in October 1988. The shootings are those of Graeme Jensen, killed by the Armed Robbery Squad on 11 October 1988, and Constables Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre who were killed by offender/s unknown the following day. Qualitative content analysis consists of a detailed reading of a text in order to provide an interpretation by drawing out the latent meaning of the text. In conducting the analysis the overriding concern is not with whether the reports are true or false, but how meaning is created and to what effect. The newspapers studied represent the killing of Graeme Jensen as unproblematic, depicting it as lawful and necessary. Graeme Jensen is represented as a dangerous criminal living outside the community; his death is presented not as a tragedy but as the fulfilment of his life's destiny. Other ways of viewing the shooting, that are at least as well supported by the evidence, are given little space. In contrast, the killing of the two police officers is represented as a terrible crime. The great emphasis given to the brutality of the killings and killers, and the innocence of the police victims, constructs the officers as martyrs whose dead bodies provide the rhetorical base for police demands for greater powers, resources, and harsher punishments. The press coverage of the shootings supports the organisational legitimacy and interests of the police; there is little evidence of competition for meaning within the reports, and alternative viewpoints are only included to give the illusion of a contest.
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ItemRegulatory strategies for controlling irresponsible behaviour by those infected with HIV( 1995)This thesis examines the selection of suitable options to regulate irresponsible behaviour by those infected with HIV. Whilst regulation of disease transmission has been regarded as the domain of the public health system, in recent years, there has been an increasing use of the criminal justice system to regulate this conduct. Accompanying this increased use have been criticisms that the criminal justice system is an inappropriate regulatory response because it is overly punitive and is problematic from a number of social and legal perspectives. In Victoria, the Health Act 1958, the Crimes Act 1958 the Prostitution Regulation Act and the Summary Offences Act 1966 govern conduct in this field. This study investigated the aims, philosophy and operation of both these systems with a view to determining which system is the most effective regulatory option. Five recent Victorian cases involving irresponsible behaviour were examined. Three of these were dealt with by the criminal justice system and two were regulated using public health provisions, providing a comparison of the regulation of this conduct in practice by both systems. It was found that neither system could deal adequately with all issues involved in the effective regulation of this behaviour. However, the Victorian public health system was better able to deal effectively with more of the critical issues than the criminal justice system, namely, protection of the community from dangerous behaviour, prevention of irresponsible conduct through deterrence, rehabilitation of offenders and avoidance of unnecessary restriction on individual liberty. Additionally, the public health system could deal better with issues of compliance with rules of procedural justice, provision of medical treatment for offenders and victims and maintenance of the health of offenders and victims, efficiency in terms of cost and delay and provision of trained personnel to investigate allegations of irresponsible behaviour and to determine appropriate action to be taken. Whilst the criminal justice system could deal better with the issues of protection of the privacy of offenders and victims and the punishment of offenders, these issues were not of sufficient importance to outweigh the benefits health regulation may bring in terms of protection of the community, prevention of the conduct through deterrence and rehabilitation. Indeed, the educative and non-punitive approach proffered by this system is more conducive to reducing the occurrence of this behaviour and providing remedies for it when it occurs. In light of this study's findings, future research should determine appropriate responses to the behaviour of individuals who have a mental illness and/or intellectual disability and who behave irresponsibly and examine the• practical operation of Victoria's HIV / AIDS Advisory Case Management Panel, particularly the panel's decision-making processes.
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ItemIntellectual and cultural property rights for indigenous Australians( 1998)The issue of intellectual and cultural property rights for Indigenous Australians was raised in 1974 when the late Wandjuk Marika, walked into a shop in Cairns and found his own sacred design on a tea towel that had been manufactured in Holland. He said “I was shocked when I walked into that shop, and when I saw it I was shocked and break my heart”. To add to his anger and humiliation, Mr Marika was charged $10 for the tea towel. He believed he should have been charged $2 for the cloth as the design belonged to him. He expressed outrage that those people who had stolen and copied his designs would consider his work to be purely pleasure paintings rather than the expressions of power and knowledge of important cultural symbols. Mr Marika’s devastation was apparent when he stated “[a]fter I found my own designs on the tea towels I was shocked and I loose [sic] my power to paint, lose my power for a number of years. Mr Marika passed away in 1987 and sadly the issues he raised are yet to be resolved. Mr Marika’s desire to obtain legal protection of the art and culture of Aboriginal people lives on in the minds of many Australians including a number of Indigenous scholars and academics, like myself. The issues that Mr Marika raised back in 1974 are the basis of my thesis on intellectual and cultural property rights for Indigenous peoples. It is the struggle for control of the identity and culture of Indigenous Australians; their continual marginalisation within the colonial nation-state; and the role that colonial institutions play in maintaining and reinforcing the dominant ideology which provides the foundation for this thesis.