The Challenges of Political Corruption in Australia, the Proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission Bill (2020) and the Application of the APUNCAC

Political corruption affects each nation-state differently, but the outcomes are nominally the same: a deficit of public trust, weakened government institutions and undermined political systems. This article analyzes issues of political corruption in Australia by framing them within a national integrity ecosystem (NIE) and addressing them against the proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission (CIC) 2020 bill. It also discusses prevalent ‘grey’ areas of Australian politically-corrupt behavior where they interact with the private sector: the revolving door, political donations, and lobbying; and the state of Australia’s implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. This article argues for their inclusion within the mandated scope of the proposed CIC. There is a need for strong legislation, both domestic and international, to fight corruption. This article then discusses the application of the provisions of the draft Anticorruption Protocol to the UN Convention Against Corruption (APUNCAC) that may apply with respect to these ‘grey’ issues, and how an International Anti-Corruption Court may provide another institutional model for Australia to follow. Finally, this article links these proposals to the 2021 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Corruption and the 9th Conference of States Parties on the UNCAC (COSP9). These events illustrate multilateral momentum and progress on anti-corruption. As a country that has historically supported the UN multilateral framework and its institutions, this article recommends a proactive approach for Australia so that the passing of a strong domestic anticorruption initiative will contribute to the adoption, and eventual ratification, of the APUNCAC.

Revolving Door Paradox of Textile Industry in Ethiopia: Quantitative analyses of High Labor Turnover

The study aims to assess the determinants of employees’ turnover in the Ethiopian textile industry. To assess the determinants of the problem, a sample of four companies were included in the study from four different Regional States (Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, and SNNPR). The principal sources of the data were employees, key informants, and employers in the textile manufacturing enterprise. A structured questionnaire with CSpro software was used to gather the information. A Probit Econometric Regression analysis was applied to analyze the data and draw a conclusion. The findings of the study revealed that workers’ dissatisfaction with their job, work environment, and salary dissatisfaction have a significant and positive relationship to their intention to leave the companies. However, as expected, supervisors’ good relationship with the workers has a significant effect to reduce the probability of the worker’s intention to leave the company. Compared to males, female workers are more likely to intend to leave. This could be associated with inconvenient work schedule and works stress. The result of the analysis also shows that the larger the family sizes, the less likely are the workers intend to leave their company which could be associated to fear of risk against the family livelihood.

Containment and therapeutic relationships in acute psychiatric care spaces: the symbolic dimensions of doors

Background There is an increasing trend of door locking practices in acute psychiatric care. The aim of the present study was to illuminate the symbolic dimensions of doors in Greek mental health nurses’ experiences of open and locked working spaces. Results A sequential mixed-method designexplored the experiences of nurses working in both open and locked psychiatric acute care units. Participants experiences revealed four types of doors related to the quality of recovery-oriented care: (a) the open door, (b) the invisible door, (c) the restraining door, and (d) the revolving door. Open doors and permeable spacesgenerated trust and facilitated the diffusion of tension and the necessary perception of feeling safe in order to be involved in therapeutic engagement. When the locked unit was experienced as a caring environment, the locked doors appeared to be “invisible”. The restraining doors symbolized loss of control, social distance and stigma echoing the consequences of restrictingpeople’s crucial control over spaceduring the COVID-19 pandemicin relation toviolence within families, groups and communities. The revolving door (service users’ abscondence/re-admission) symbolised the rejection of the offered therapeutic environment and was a source of indignation and compassion fatigue in both open and locked spaces attributed to internal structural acute care characteristics (limited staffing levels, support, resources and activities for service users) as well as ‘locked doors’ in the community (limited or no care continuity and stigma). Conclusions The impact of COVID-19 restrictions on people’s crucial control of space provides an impetus for erecting barriers masked by the veil of habit and reconsidering the impact of the simple act of leaving the door open/locked to allow both psychiatric acute care unit staff and service users to reach their potential.

Stigma and social barriers to accessing timely healthcare for alcohol dependence and misuse: a narrative review

This narrative review looks at how alcohol misuse can be distinguished from unproblematic alcohol consumption, and it considers the extent of alcohol use in the UK, along with the cost of alcohol, financial and otherwise, to individuals and wider society. It focuses on the perceived public stigma and personal stigma associated with alcohol misuse and dependence and how this can discourage people from seeking help from healthcare services. This includes the negative impact of stigmatising language in reinforcing stereotypes and creating expectations. The article explores alcohol-related readmissions and the emotional consequences of ‘revolving-door syndrome’ for patients and professionals. Recommendations are made for hospital screening for risky lifestyle factors, as well as professional education on alcohol screening and interventions. The article concludes with recommendations for further study, to not lose sight of the patient and to destigmatise language to break down barriers to treatment access.

A Profile Study of Elderly Offenders in the Community Criminal Courts of Singapore: Theorizing Geriatric Criminality

This research, using data from the Community Criminal Courts where a majority of elderly offenders are tried and sentenced, investigates the socio-economic profile of elderly offenders and the factors influencing their criminal motivation in Singapore. It revisits conceptualizations of offending in older age which until now has received scant attention even in Asian societies where ties to conventional institutions are thought to be “protective.” The majority of elderly offenders in this study were “revolving door prisoners” and were never in possession of any efficacious social capital that would have prevented them from committing a crime or enabled their re-entry process, a problem compounded by the study’s findings that almost 70% of the sampled offenders had experienced mental health issues. This would have spelled adverse consequences for their desistance and, conversely, their recidivist behavior, a finding that was consistent with many other studies that had examined the association between psychosis and crime.

Risk Factors for Revolving Door in Children and Adolescents with Psychiatric Disorders

Revolving Door (RD) is a frequent phenomenon afflicting children and adolescents with psychiatric diagnoses. Nevertheless, risk factors for RD are still a matter of debate. To better understand RD phenomenon, we conducted a retrospective study on 224 children and adolescents (165 females and 59 males, aged 6–16 years) with a psychiatric hospitalization, taking the multiple risk factors together. At this aim, 108 patients with multiple hospitalizations and 116 patients with only one hospitalization were compared on demographic characteristics, clinical conditions, psychiatric ward stay, and post-discharge management factors. More than half of psychiatric patients were readmitted within three months of discharge. RD patients presented greater severity of illness, needed longer stays, and were more frequently placed in residential facilities than non-RD patients. Non-suicidal self-injurious and adoption were the main predictors of RD. Clinical instruments that detected behavioural and emotional symptoms, suicidal ideation severity, and level of impairment of the person’s functioning were useful to identify patients at high risk for RD. In conclusion, our findings pointed out that several risk factors have to be considered to better understand and, in the future, prevent RD phenomenon.