Linda English

Identification and Expression of Cephamycinase blaCMY Genes in Escherichia coli and Salmonella Isolates from Food Animals and Ground Meat

ABSTRACT Twenty-one Salmonella and 54 Escherichia coli isolates, recovered from food animals and retail ground meats, that exhibited decreased susceptibilities to ceftiofur and ceftriaxone were shown to possess a blaCMYgene. The blaCMY-4 gene was identified in an E. coli isolate recovered from retail chicken and was further shown to be responsible for resistance to cephalothin, ampicillin, and amoxicillin-clavulanic acid and elevated MICs of ceftriaxone, cefoxitin, and ceftiofur.

Driving privately financed projects in Australia: what makes them tick?

This paper documents the growing dependence of Australian governments on the use of private funding to provide infrastructure and related services to the public. Using a Habermasian framework proposed by Broadbent and Laughlin in 1999 the paper examines their second research question: “what is the nature of PFI and who is regulating its application?” to frame an analysis of the complex relationships between steering media and steering mechanisms in determining the operation of privately financed projects (PFP) in Australia. A secondary, but related concern is to explore the linkages between the macro‐economic policy debates that gave rise to PFP and their implications for the micro‐organisational control issues. The debate about whether or not PFP are a response by governments to macro economic pressures remains unresolved. Similarly, there is evidence that governments are not as successful as private‐sector consortia at identifying and shifting risk and, therefore, at achieving value‐for‐money. Ultimate PFP outcomes depend on two factors: broad policy parameters established by governments (steering mechanisms) either discreetly, or through other appointed steering media; and execution at the micro or organisational level, that is, on the decisions and actions taken by a variety of actors interfacing with PFP.

Performance information and programme evaluation in the Australian public sector

Performance measurement and programme evaluation have been promoted as a central mechanism of recent Australian public sector (APS) reform. Outlines recent reforms in the APS and identifies links between evaluation and performance information. Identifies the major issue of credibility, when performance information is produced internally and not verified externally. A lack of performance systems and standards can create difficulties for both internal and external programme evaluations. Concludes that: reforms introduced to evaluate performance in the APS were promoted with high expectations which have only partially been fulfilled; the present system is internally focused with a narrow role for evaluation and a lack of credibility because of the independence issue; the present systems associated with the performance approach and its evaluation are not providing enough information to deal with the tough questions of the effectiveness of government programmes. Proposes that a middle ground between internal and external programme evaluation strategies be adopted. This allows the strengths of internal evaluation to be retained. At the same time, it allows the possibility of improving programme evaluation by adding external independent verification and an extended effectiveness role.

Learning through writing in a first-year accounting course

Abstract More than any other activity at a university, the writing experiences of students are directly linked to their academic progress. This paper reports on the practical steps taken in restructuring the curriculum of a first-year accounting course at the University of Sydney to develop students’ writing skills within a broader skills-based program to enhance learning. Three dimensions of students’ writing skills are addressed: writing skills as prerequisites for learning, writing skills as a means of learning, and writing skills as an outcome of learning. The paper explains how the educational theory about learning to write and writing to learn contributed to a pedagogical framework for teaching practice and gives several examples as illustration of the pedagogy. Interactive reading guides, annotated model answers, analysis grids, and formative self and peer assessment are among techniques adopted to encourage students to reflect actively on their own learning through writing. The curriculum redesign project reported here was first introduced in 1994, and substantially modified in 1995 in response to feedback. In general, the quality of submitted assignments, examination performance, and feedback from both staff and students suggests that the innovations reported in the paper have helped students to improve their writing skills and enabled them to become more engaged with the learning of the content of the course. Quantitative feedback between 1994–1997 confirms these conclusions.

Mandate, Independence and Funding: Resolution of a Protracted Struggle Between Parliament and the Executive Over the Powers of the Australian Auditor‐General

This paper examines a political struggle in the Australian federal sphere over parliaments right, exercised through the Office of the Auditor-General, to oversee the accounts and management practices of the executive and entities created by legislation to deliver public services. The period from the early 1970s witnessed a dramatic shift in the method of delivering government services to the community and an increasing attention to economy, efficiency and effectiveness in their administration and delivery. The Australian government has increasingly used private sector organisational models and modern management and accounting practices to deliver a wide range of services. The rise of these ‘new public management’ practices resulted in an erosion of traditional parliamentary oversight of government management and reporting activities. This historical analysis is based upon Porters (1981) processual analytical framework. The analysis focuses on the action of groups such as the executive, parliamentary committees and the Office of the Auditor-General as evidenced in documents produced in response to critical events. Models developed by Funnell and Cooper (1998) are used to characterise the transition of public sector audit from a traditional administrative model to a corporatist model.

Using public–private partnerships to achieve value for money in the delivery of healthcare in Australia

This research locates the use of public private partnerships (PPP) within the new public management (NPM) reforms that have swept the Australian public sector. Empirical evidence from policy documents and a case study of a failed public hospital project in Victoria are used to illustrate problems associated with allocating risk in PPP arrangements. Evidence is presented that the government underestimated both sponsor and political risks associated with the arrangement. The bidder failed to understand the ramifications of the funding model, leaving it unable to provide the level of services required. The paper focuses on the changing nature of PPP policy. Initially adopted to transfer risk to private partners to avoid on-balance sheet recognition to achieve macro economic objectives, the aim of PPP has been refined to achieve optimal risk allocation to achieve Value for Money (VFM) in the delivery of infrastructure-based services.

Improving Group Satisfaction: making groups work in a first‐year undergraduate course

Abstract The value of working in groups as a strategy for learning, and the development of communication and interpersonal skills is acknowledged in most tertiary institutions. Academic staff tend to avoid introducing groupwork into crowded first‐year undergraduate curriculum, because of large numbers and, in many cases, staffing constraints. This paper outlines the establishment of a groupwork component in a first‐year undergraduate accounting tutorial programme. Although this component did not work well in the first year for about half the students involved, it proved a valuable support socially, as well as academically for the rest of the cohort, so was continued into a second year. To increase group satisfaction, structural and managerial changes were introduced, with positive results. Establishing groupwork early in an undergraduate course allows group skills to develop over time, encourages reflection on learning behaviour and can facilitate increasing expertise in the subject area.

The Changing Nature of Contracting and Trust in Public-Private Partnerships:The Case of Victorian PPP Prisons

This paper examines shifting constructions of contracting and trust that are manifest between pre-2000 and post-2000 public-private partnerships (PPPs) providing prison facilities and/or services in the Australian State of Victoria. As such, this paper is significant because it outlines longitudinal insights into the nature of changing practices sustaining these PPPs. The post-2000 period examined reflects a change of government and the policy context. Our examination is based on a range of primary and secondary documents. The primary documents comprise three pre-2000 Prison Services Agreements and two post-2000 Facilities Services Agreements. A number of government and other reports constitute the secondary documents consulted. While there are many substantive similarities between the contracts, we find five main areas of changed contracting practices over the period examined. These relate to: first, the objectives of the PPP prisons; second, risk management practices; third, the approach to performance measurement and reporting; fourth, the structuring of incentive and payment mechanisms; and fifth, the emphasis on collaboration. Overall, we find that the post-2000 contracts promote a more overt development of goodwill trust and relational contracting, building on presumptions of contractual and competence forms of trust. However, quite different outcomes have been achieved from particular contractual contexts. Our study suggests that in complex PPP contracts, the influences of both the transacting parties and the transaction environment have been insufficiently recognized in the literature on PPPs.

Public–private partnerships and public sector management reform: a comparative perspective

Public–private partnerships involve organisations from the public and private sectors working together to provide public services. This introductory issue of the International Journal of Public Policy comprises two papers that consider PPP at the theoretical level, and seven papers that explore partnership arrangements in four different countries: the UK, Australia, USA and France. In some countries the term PPP is used to describe partnerships that provide infrastructure and associated services. In other countries the term is used to refer to quite different arrangements for the delivery of a range of services. The purpose of this introduction is to consider how the socio-economic, political and administrative experiences of the featured countries have influenced the ways in which the nature and purpose of PPP are understood. Our analysis of those partnership models is framed by the new public management and network models. Extant definitions of PPP are examined and assessed for their applicability to the diversity of arrangements featured in this special issue.

A commentary on 'The long road to publishing: A user-friendly expose'

Paul de Lange has selected a highly significant topic – publishing. The primary purpose of his paper is to provide an illustrative example of how to tackle the review process, including how to respond to negative responses from reviewers. A second motivation is to consider what qualities make a ‘publishable’ article, and the purpose of the review process in turning a ‘good research question’ q into a publishable article by increasing rigor, the r factor (Ellison, 2002). Ellison (2002) developed the ‘q-r theory’ to explain observed changes over a 30–40 year period in published papers in the economics discipline. He found that contemporary papers are longer, have longer introductions, more sections discussing extensions of main results and more references. Likewise, the publishing process has become considerably longer, as experienced by de Lange. The ‘q-r theory’ was developed to explain these observed changes. The central premise of the theory, as noted by de Lange, is that academic papers vary along two quality dimensions: q and r the. ‘q-r theory’ predicts differences in quality norms between disciplines and within disciplines over time (Swanson, 2002). The q dimension reflects the paper’s inherent contribution to the literature – the initial work undertaken by the academic prior to writing up the paper – and includes the paper’s main idea and, where appropriate, the methodology adopted to test it empirically. The r dimension is intended to reflect additional aspects of quality that can be improved when referees ask authors to ‘generalize theoretical results, to check the robustness of empirical findings, to extend the analysis to consider related questions, to improve and tighten a paper’s exposition, to make clear relationships to other papers in the literature, etc.’ (Ellison, 2002, p. 953). In other words, improving the r factor assumes that the q factor has passed the fundamental ‘contribution to the literature/appropriate research design’ hurdles. Ellison (2002) theorizes that if there is general agreement that the q-quality is very important, then academics will spend most of their time developing main ideas and considering research design issues. If r-quality is more important, then authors spend very little time on ideas and focus on revisions. Ellison (2002) posits that social norms can help explain changes in the publishing process. The role of referees in Ellison’s model is to help authors improve r-quality. He Accounting Education: an international journal Vol. 14, No. 2, 169–172, June 2005