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Australian Policy (australian + policy)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences57%

Selected Abstracts

Australian asylum policies: have they violated the right to health of asylum seekers?

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 1 2009
Vanessa Johnston
Abstract Objectives: Notwithstanding recent migration policy amendments, there is concern that Australian asylum policies have disproportionately burdened the health and wellbeing of onshore asylum seekers. There may be a case to be made that Australian governments have been in violation of the right to health of this population. The objective of this paper is to critically examine these issues and assess the implications for public health practice. Methods:The author undertook a review of the recent empirical literature on the health effects of post-migration stressors arising from Australian policies of immigration detention, temporary protection and the restriction of Medicare to some asylum seekers. This evidence was examined within the context of Australia's international law obligations. Results: Findings reveal that Australian asylum policies of detention, temporary protection and the exclusion of some asylum seekers from Medicare rights have been associated with adverse mental health outcomes for this population. This is attributable to the impact of these policies on accessing health care and the underlying determinants of health for aslyum seekers. Conclusion: It is arguable that Australian Governments have been discriminating against asylum seekers by withholding access on the grounds of their migration status, to health care and to the core determinants of health in this context. In so doing, Australia may have been in violation of its obligation to respect the right to health of this population. Implications: While the ,right to health' framework has much to offer public health, it is an undervalued and poorly understood discipline. The author argues for more education, research and advocacy around the intersection between heath and human rights. [source]

The embodiment of class-related and health inequalities: Australian policies

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 1 2000
Jake M. Najman
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

Australia and the DPRK: A Sixty-Year Relationship

PACIFIC FOCUS, Issue 3 2008
Leonid A. Petrov
The record of relations between Australia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is one of the oddest and most checkered in diplomatic history. A short period of recognition and cultural cooperation was followed by the resurgent nuclear crisis and the drug-smuggling ship incident, which proved to be hard tests for this shaky relationship. The closure of the DPRK embassy to Australia in January 2008 once again left the public confused and the pundits guessing about the true reasons behind this quiet démarche. This paper examines the major ups and downs in the history of Australia,DPRK bilateral relations and offers some clues as to what might have been wrong in Australian policy and attitudes toward the isolated communist nation. Australian involvement in the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative and the ban on the supply of "luxury goods" to North Korea will be discussed. Interviews with serving and veteran diplomats, declassified Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade archival material and international media reports provided the basis for this research. [source]

Public health metaphors in Australian policy on asylum seekers

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 1 2009
Glenda Koutroulis
Abstract Objective: To analyse the way in which a public health metaphor has been incorporated into Australian political practice to justify the exclusion or mistreatment of unwelcome non-citizens, giving particular attention to recent asylum seekers. Approach: Starting with a personal experience of working in an immigration detention centre and then drawing on media reports and published scholarship, I critique political rhetoric and policy on asylum seekers, arguing that the significance of a public health metaphor lies in its effectiveness in persuading the public that refugees and asylum seekers are a moral contaminant that threatens the nation and has to be contained. Conclusion: Acceptance of the metaphor sanctions humanly degrading inferences, policies and actions. Public health professionals therefore have a responsibility to challenge the political use of public health and associated metaphors. Implications: Substituting the existing metaphor for one that is more morally acceptable could help to redefine refugees and asylum seekers more positively and promote compassion in political leaders and the community. [source]

John Howard's "Nation": Multiculturalism, Citizenship, and Identity

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 1 2009
John William Tate
This article identifies the specific concept of "nation" that informed John Howard's politics from his time as Liberal Party leader in the second half of the 1980s to the final years of his 1996,2007 prime ministership. It compares and contrasts the constitutive, procedural and multicultural models of nation to show Howard's continuing commitment to a constitutive understanding of the Australian nation. He endeavoured to give this understanding expression at the policy level by explicitly moving against the multicultural concept of nation that had informed Australian policy from the late 1970s. The Citizenship Test, introduced in his final year of office, is presented as the final move in this departure from multiculturalism. [source]

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: the Case of Papuan Asylum-Seekers

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 4 2006
David Palmer
It is perilous to look to history to provide guidance for the present. Nonetheless the political controversy surrounding the granting of temporary protection to forty-two asylum-seekers from West Papua in March 2006 needs to be understood in its wider, historical context. Papua has been a pebble in the region's political shoe since 1949. And national considerations are not new in shaping Australian policy toward asylum-seekers. Certainly in the 1960s and 1970s Australia played a tactical, often tough game with Papuan asylum-seekers in order to contain tensions with Indonesia. This article analyses the history of Australia's foreign and immigration policies towards Papuan asylum-seekers and describes the delicate balancing act that successive Australian governments have needed to perform in handling this issue. [source]

Diplomacy Interrupted?: Macmahon Ball, Evatt and Labor's Policies in Occupied Japan,

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 2 2006
Christine de Matos
Historiography on the Australian political and diplomatic role in the Allied Occupation of Japan (1945,1952) gives disproportionate attention to the meetings between the Australian Minister for External Affairs, H.V. Evatt, and the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in Japan (SCAP), General Douglas MacArthur, in Tokyo during 1947. These meetings are then linked to the subsequent resignation from the Allied Council for Japan (ACJ) of William Macmahon Ball, an Australian academic representing the British Commonwealth, and used to justify the claim that Australian policy towards Occupied Japan was unpredictable and ad hoc. This attention to Ball's resignation has distorted analysis of Australia's role in, and policies towards, Japan during the Occupation. This article argues that there is a need to develop a new historical discourse for the Australian role in the Occupation, one that moves beyond the intrigues of personalities and investigates diplomatic policy practice and its underlying ideals. This, in turn, may encourage other scholars to rethink the wider conduct and practice of foreign policy under the Labor governments of the 1940s. [source]