Issue 2

Rural Australia comprises 37 per cent of Australia's population, and
35.5 per cent of the total work force. Given this significance, rural population, and labour markets, should be the focus of much research and analysis particularly for government policy relating to the provision of physical and social infrastructure. Yet, generally, rural labour markets have not received the attention that other labour markets in Australia have. This paper analyses the characteristics and trends in Australia's rural labour markets to identify areas of change or stability over time.

ANNE M. GARNETT; PHILIP E.T. LEWIS

Page Number - 157

Australia's health care financing arrangements under Medicare involve the Commonwealth subsidisation of private fee-for-service (FFS) medical services produced both in- and out-of-hospital. The Medicare institution, including these subsidy arrangements, operates in a spatially uniform manner. From time-to-time, since the introduction of Medicare on I February 1984, ad hoc reviews of the Medicare subsidy arrangements have been undertaken. This empirical study presents the first examination of the price relativities of various specialist and general practitioner services that have arisen under Medicare over time, and across space. The empirical work involves estimating and testing time-series relative price equations for ten groups of medical practitioner services, for each state and territory in Australia. on quarterly Health Insurance Commission (HIC) data. Seventy-two equations are estimated in total. on 49 quarterly observations from September 1984 to September 1996. The important conclusions of the work are that price outcomes under Medicare are characterised by spatial non-uniformity, despite the uniformity of the subsidy mechanism. A related conclusion is that institutional reforms to the subsidy arrangements of Medicare may. in some cases, prove to be blunt instruments if prices and their relativities are the relevant policy targets. The results inform a presently uninformed medico-legal debate about price relativities in the health sector under Medicare and serve to caution the applications of institutional change as a tool for effecting relative price change.

L.B. CONNELLY; D.P. DOESSEL

Page Number - 173

The Liberal/National Coalition Government of John Howard has been grappling with regional issues and the political backlash against the Government from its traditional constituency in rural or regional Australia. In its first term of office, the Coalition Government dismantled the Regional Development Program (RDP) under which were funded Regional Economic Development Organisations (REDOs). As a result, many predicted that the regional movement in Australia would wane, regional policy would go off the political agenda, and REDOs would fold. None of this has happened. In the case of REDOs, which are the focus of this paper, an in-depth study undertaken in 1997 (Fulop & Brennan) found evidence that the majority of them would survive. The paper discusses a number of key findings from the study, including funding strategies and major achievements of the REDOs as well as their strategies for survival. It draws some conclusions about the future prospects of the REDOs.

LIZ FULOP; MARTIN BRENNAN

Page Number - 197

Decision makers and planers need to have relevant and reliable information to give a picture of how different areas are developing economically and socially. However, there is a perceived lack of timely and easily accessible data at the Local Government Area (LGA) level. This study produced a statistical profile of the Shoalhaven (LGA) by developing a conceptual framework, which represents the key economic, social, and population characteristics of the LGA. The statistical data available from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) at the level of the LGA, was investigated and summarised. Other sources of information available to create a statistical profile of the Shoalhaven LGA were identified. The criteria used to select indicators were that the data were already available, relevant to the concept being measured and comparable over time and areas. The data had to be reliable and likely to be available in the future. In compiling the data from multiple sources, it is important that the methods of collection and reliability of the data are investigated and documented and that concepts, definitions and classifications are comparable.

NELL STETNER-HOUWELING; DAVID STEEL; GREG PULLEN

Page Number - 219