Melbourne Law School - Theses
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ItemThe regulation of essential service insolvencies and the public interest : case studies of Australia's electricity industry and Melbourne's public transport industry( 2007)This thesis critically explores the regulation of the insolvency of essential services and the public interest through an examination of the common law and legislative responses in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Drawing on understandings of the public interest gained from its analysis the thesis proposes a model of the public interest that may be used to justify representation of non-creditor interests within insolvency proceedings of essential services. The model also identifies non-creditor public interest considerations that extend beyond continuity of supply. The thesis then undertakes case studies of the regulation of insolvency within the Australian electricity industry and Melbourne's public transport industry to examine how effectively public interest issues have been addressed and how these are balanced against the interests of the firm and its creditors. The thesis argues that a fundamental problem of the regulation of insolvent essential services is balancing the general public's interest in the fate of the insolvent firm with the interests of others stakeholders, particularly creditors. The thesis demonstrates there is a great deal of inconsistency of response to this issue both within and between the jurisdictions under consideration. Focussing on the public interest in the continuity of supply, the United Kingdom has enacted ad hoc insolvency procedures which are initiated by the state and oust creditor control mainly in relation to the monopoly sector of various essential services. A different approach in the United States has meant public interest considerations are built into its insolvency law through a combination of legislative prescription, judicial interpretation of the Bankruptcy Code and a limited willingness to grant non-creditor representation rights in insolvency proceedings of essential services. The thesis argues that the integration model of the United States allows an appropriate balance to be struck between the interests of the firm and its creditors and the broader public interest when regulating the insolvency of essential services. In contrast Australia has not enacted ad hoc insolvency procedures or expressly integrated the public interest within its insolvency law. The case study of the Australian electricity industry shows, however, that the public interest in the continuity of supply is managed by allowing creditors' rights to be affected radically by utilities regulation such a state step-in rights and retailer of last regulation. The thesis demonstrates the fragmented and inconsistent nature of these provisions. The case study of Melbourne's train and tram industry and the examination of South Australia's privatisation of its electricity assets by way of lease show the ways in which private contracting rather than utilities regulation can manage public interest issues. The thesis concludes that while the public's interest in the continuity of supply of essential services in Australia is generally satisfactorily dealt with under current arrangements, what is less clear is whether public interest issues beyond continuity of supply will be given sufficient weight in insolvency proceedings, particularly in the context of a reorganising firm. The thesis argues it is within this area that there is space for integrating public interest considerations within Australia's insolvency law by expressly requiring the court to consider the public interest in such proceedings. Incorporating public interest considerations that recognise non-creditor stakeholder interests into Australian insolvency law requires theoretical justification. The thesis argues there are sound theoretical arguments for expanding insolvency's law role to accommodate broader stakeholder interests in the context of the insolvency of essential services and that the model of the public interest proposed by the thesis may be used as a basis for a court to grant representation rights to non-creditor interests within insolvency proceedings of essential services in Australia.
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ItemThe integration of complementary and alternative medicine into health care : regulating for consumer choice, autonomy and responsibility( 2007)This thesis explicates the role that the law, and particularly regulation, can play in the integration of evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) into the Australian health care system. It outlines a regulatory framework to move Australia beyond an ad hoc approach to integration to a national, co-ordinated and systematic one, informed by the guiding principles of choice, autonomy and responsibility. Integration is necessary to ensure that all Australians have the option of safe and effective CAM. A holistic approach - a metaphor, the `regulatory space of health care', and a broad definition of regulation, legal orderings (statutes and common law) and non-legal orderings (guidelines and norms) - is adopted to analyse the current level-of integration of CAM in Australia. This integrative map provides the necessary background to consider key elements of the regulatory framework necessary for integration. A national policy, a national body, a model of integration and regulatory strategies are proposed and discussed. A partnership model of integration is recommended as both biomedicine and CAM have a singular contribution to health care in the future. The model of integration must preserve the integrity of each health care paradigm. It must provide scope for the continued development and exploration of health solutions arising out of the philosophy and methodology of biomedicine and CAM. A holistic relational model, referral, multidisciplinary, and other linking mechanisms, are proposed to unify the two health care paradigms into one health care system. To spearhead, steer and co-ordinate the regulatory change process, a national body - an Australian National Centre for Integrative Healthcare (ANCIH) is recommended. As integration will involve a re-negotiation of the regulatory space of health care, to make room for evidence-based CAM to share in health infrastructure, this national body will require the authority to work with all the stake-holders to effect change.
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ItemEffective public participation in major projects( 2006)The thesis explores ways to make public participation processes for major projects more effective. Reviews and analysis of public participation theories and practices are provided, with particular attention to legislative requirements and judicial findings in Victoria, Australia. The questionnaire and interview findings from participants in the two Victorian case studies - the Advisory Committee for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Village and Coode Island Community Consultative Committee -- provide first hand accounts of participants' experiences with these processes. Their responses are studied in composite to further understand `the public' as well as the participant groups making up the public to understand their views. The analysis suggests that public participation processes in Victoria need to be improved. While some guidance on conducting public participation is provided by the Victorian government and other levels of government, much of this does not directly address issues of power imbalances, politics and other practical considerations. The research findings reveal a groundswell of dissatisfaction with public participation in major projects. While case study participants strongly supported the principles of public participation they were disappointed with its reality. Significant differences between participant groups related to their evaluations of the effectiveness of these processes, their awareness of public participation legal requirements, their preference for strengthening these requirements and the appropriate levels and methods for engaging the public. Participant groups with higher levels of influence provided more positive evaluations of these processes and were less interested in strengthening their legislative requirements and appeal rights than those with the least influence. This dissertation makes several valuable contributions to town planning and legal research. The research provides valuable information on how laws work in their social and economic contexts. It provides a rich and comprehensive understanding of where public participation in major projects is failing and how it can be improved in a manner that meets the needs and abilities of a diverse public. This dissertation springs from empirical research which, though widely used in social science research, is not widely utilised in legal research. Such cross-evaluation can be especially useful for international legal research given that differences in legal systems limit the extent to which findings can he compared. This study's research methods and data can be used by subsequent researchers to test their validity and reliability. The research critically examines the applicability of an international convention to public participation in major projects. It is suggested that the three pillars of the Aarhus Convention should be viewed as progressive layers creating a pyramid of participation. The Effective Major Project Public Participation Model advocates providing basic legal requirements that focus on providing good information, followed by appropriate participation and access to independent review, while recognising the need for participant goodwill and voluntary guidelines. This model is supported by a framework, detailing key participation steps and considerations along with a matrix of preferable participation options for major projects.
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ItemThe introduction of the consolidation regime into the income tax assessment act 1997 (CTH) : an analysis of the effect on the subsidiary disposal decision for a corporate group( 2007)In 1998, the Australian Government appointed John Ralph to conduct a review of Australian business taxation. Under its terms of reference, the Review of Business Taxation (`the Review') was required to make recommendations regarding the design of the business tax system, ongoing policy-making, drafting of legislation and the administration of business taxation. As a preliminary step, the Review released a number of discussion papers. In the first of these, A Strong Foundation, the Review set out what it considered to be an appropriate design framework for business taxation, and identified three national taxation objectives that should provide `high level guidance for the design and operation of the business tax system'. One of these objectives was optimising economic growth. In particular, the Review indicated that: An internationally competitive economy will require, and be sustained by, efficient economic use of its resources. To that end, a vital precondition for international competitiveness 'vill be to ensure that the business tax system does not influence business decisions unnecessarily. The culmination of the work of the Review was the release of the report, A Tax System Redesigned: More Certain, Equitable and Durable (`the Ralph Report'), which set out the Review's final recommendations for business tax reform. The cornerstone of the new business tax system recommended in the Ralph Report was the so-called `consolidation regime', which would permit certain corporate groups to be treated as a single entity for tax purposes. This recommendation was accepted by the Government and enacted, and, as a result, since 1 July 2002 certain corporate groups have been able to choose to be treated as a single entity for tax purposes. To what extent does this consolidation regime comply with the original design framework put forward by the Review in A Strong Foundation? In particular, does it satisfy the `vital precondition' that it `does not influence business decisions unnecessarily'? In this thesis, I consider this issue by focusing on one particular business decision that could be affected by the consolidation regime; namely, the decision by a corporate group to dispose of a subsidiary (`the subsidiary disposal decision'). I examine the ways in which the consolidation regime might influence this decision, and assess the extent to which this renders the consolidation regime liable to the charge of influencing the subsidiary disposal decision unnecessarily. I focus on four examples of where the consolidation regime could affect the subsidiary disposal decision: the payment of a pre-sale dividend by the subsidiary (or `target'); a presale debt reconstruction in relation to the target; some particular cost base issues; and the liability, as between group members, to pay tax under the consolidation regime. I conclude that the consolidation regime influences the subsidiary disposal decision. I then suggest that, because that influence is difficult to justify having regard to the national tax objectives set in A Strong Foundation, the consolidation regime influences the subsidiary disposal decision `unnecessarily'.
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ItemThe legal precariousness of casual employment : an examination of the legal regulation of the Australian labour market pre-2006( 2006)Are casual jobs inferior jobs? This issue is usually framed in the labour law literature by asking whether casual employees are legally precarious in the sense of enjoying fewer rights and benefits compared to those conferred upon permanent employees. The answer, according to most labour law scholars, is `yes'. The characterisation of casual employees as legally precarious is, however, problematic because of its underlying legal understandings. Foremost perhaps, many scholars erroneously ascribe a uniform contractual character to casual employment. Moreover, they wrongly presume that the contractual arrangements under which a casual worker is employed necessarily determines his or her access to protection and benefits. Further, there has been insufficient appreciation of the complex interaction between various definitions of casual employment. It is these difficulties that give rise to the principal question for this thesis: To what extent are casual employees legally precarious in the sense of enjoying fewer rights and benefits compared with those conferred upon permanent' employees? . This question can be broken down into two subsidiary questions: 1) What are the rights and benefits enjoyed by casual employees? 2) How do such rights and benefits compare with those afforded to `permanent employees? This thesis addresses these questions in three key areas of labour protection: protection against dismissal; income security and access to standard leave entitlements. In addressing the first sub-question, the thesis finds that, as the law stood. on 1 December 2005, casual employees enjoy varying levels of protection in all three areas. Much the same applies to permanent employees (as defined by this thesis). These varying grades of protection largely result from the fact that the availability of labour protection depends on a multiplicity of factors of which permanent/casual status is merely one consideration. When the rights and benefits of casual and permanent employees were compared, the conclusion was reached that casual employees, as a class, are not necessarily legally precarious in these three areas of protection. Neither can it be said that casual employees, as a class, are necessarily legally precarious in each of these areas. There is, however, a group of casual employees that are legally precarious in all three areas. It can be tentatively concluded that these legally precarious casuals form a significant proportion of workers considered by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to be casual employees. Conversely, some casual employees are not legally precarious in all three areas. Again it can be tentatively suggested that these protected casuals form a meaningful proportion of ABS casual employees. The thesis concludes by proposing a preferable approach to conceiving the question of legal precariousness. What appears to underlie the problematic answer given by labour law scholars to the question of legal precariousness is a binary model that equates permanent employment with protection, and casual employment with inferior protection or a lack of protection. A preferable approach to the legal precariousness of casual employees is to see the protection afforded to casual and permanent employees through a continuum model. This model, not only recognises the varying grades of protection enjoyed by casual and permanent employees but it also reformulates the question of legal precariousness. Instead of asking whether casual employees enjoy fewer rights and benefits compared to those conferred upon permanent employees, the question becomes: Is a worker or a particular group of workers legally precarious in the sense of not enjoying standard rights and benefits?
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ItemOfficers' accountability in managed investment schemes( 2005)The thesis examines the ways in which the directors and other officers of a company that operates a managed investment scheme can be held legally accountable for maladministration of the scheme's affairs. It demonstrates that the officers' legal accountability for maladministration arises under a combination of corporations law principles, equitable principles that apply to the officer as a consequence of the fiduciary relationship between the operator and the investors, and (where they apply) the regulatory regimes governing the provision of financial services and the operation of registered schemes. The thesis identifies the types of conduct on the part of an officer that can result in personal liability under these principles, and examines remedies and sanctions that are available to the operator, the investors, scheme creditors, and the State.
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ItemRejecting the feudal doctrine of tenure within a pluralist land culture : toward an allodial land model( 2005)This thesis argues that the feudal doctrine of tenure, as it exists in the Commonwealth jurisdictions of Australia, Canada and New Zealand, should be abolished in favour of an allodial land system. The feudal doctrine of tenure is a derivation of English history which had no relevance to colonial cultures where indigenous existence was an actuality. The tendency of colonial jurists to ignore the existence of indigenous inhabitants resulted in the application of a land system which was wholly inappropriate for the regulation of indigenous and non-indigenous land interests. As the courts increasingly recognise the validity of indigenous title, some of the fundamental problems with feudal tenure have become more apparent. The fact that feudal tenure has been largely utilised as a device for assuming absolute Crown sovereignty over all land, thereby denying the validity of indigenous title, has meant that it has never had a bi-cultural focus. It is argued that an allodial system, based broadly on the tenets of the model introduced during the republican revolution within the United States, but with significant legislative regulation, would provide a much more responsive and culturally neutral system. The removal of the sovereignty discourse from the land framework would allow land interests to develop according to their individual cultural origins. This would create an equitable and balanced land system better equipped to embrace the developments of contemporary common law jurisprudence.
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ItemAustralian interstate rivers : legal rights and administration( 1971)This thesis analyses the legal and administrative problems which arise in regulating Australian rivers that flaw along or across State boundaries. It commences by describing some practical difficulties that have occurred in recent years. It then ascertains the legal rights of the Commonwealth, the various States and private individuals to the use, flow or control of interstate rivers. In the light of the existing law, it points to weaknesses in the present administrative arrangements for reconciling. inter-government conflicts in water resources management and suggests an entirely new system that might be implemented.
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ItemGovernment promotion of job creation in Australia : regulatory objectives, instruments, and law( 2004)Direct job creation programs were a key element of the Australian Commonwealth Government's response to the policy challenge of persistent, high unemployment between 1974 and the year 2000. The emergence of job creation programs coincided with an evolving debate over the extent and legitimacy of the state's role in economic regulation, especially in relation to the labour market. Notwithstanding this coincidence, there has been no systematic effort to explore the purposes and nature of job creation programs from a regulatory perspective. Using three case studies of job creation programs implemented in Australia, this thesis tests propositions that are generated from regulatory theory, a field of scholarship broadly concerned with the relationship between the state, law and society. First, it was expected that job creation programs would serve a multiplicity of state objectives, including the immediate job creation goals of each program, as well as a number of broader labour market purposes. Second, it was anticipated that job creation programs would be implemented through a diverse range of economic and other non-legal regulatory strategies or instruments. Third, notwithstanding the broader regulatory character of job creation programs, it was expected that the programs would be expressed and constrained by various legal measures performing important regulatory functions. Finally, it was expected that the case studies would reveal interaction or responsiveness between policy objectives and the different legal and non-legal elements of each program. It is found that these propositions are largely borne out in the context of job creation programs. The immediate job creation objectives of each program were to assist people who were unemployed and considered to be disadvantaged in the labour market to obtain at least temporary employment positions. It is demonstrated that these immediate objectives reflected broader goals, such as the desire of the Commonwealth to redistribute employment opportunities to those people otherwise excluded from labour market participation. The Commonwealth Government relied upon a diverse range of regulatory instruments to achieve these goals, including financial subsidies or incentives to non-government employers, and contracting out of certain services, each supported by public sector management and oversight. Notwithstanding that these regulatory strategies were largely non-legal in nature, it is revealed that legal measures such as policy guidelines and contracts were used to ensure that regulated actors were accountable to the goals of each program. It is concluded that there was a significant degree of interaction between legal and non-legal forms of regulation in the context of these job creation programs. The findings in this thesis are significant for a number of reasons. Most importantly, this thesis establishes that job creation programs were significant state regulatory initiatives. This contradicts any notion of the state playing a lesser or somehow insubstantial role in labour market formation and regulation during the period studied. These findings have important implications for future studies of the job creation function of the-state, and point to new and potentially more insightful ways of theorising the relationship between the state and the labour market in Australia.