"The objective of the audit was to assess whether the award of funding under the RJIP program was informed by appropriate departmental advice and that processes complied with the grants administration framework."--Page 8.

Consumers who only make the minimum repayment on their credit card could be paying hundreds of dollars a year in high interest payments. To help, BETA partnered with the Treasury and Westpac to see if reminders could encourage consumers to pay earlier and save money. We found any type of SMS reminder resulted in a $134 (28 per cent) increase in repayments in the following month, compared to those who received no message. However, different SMS messages all had a similar impact and we were unable to detect an effect from sending email reminders. Overall, the findings suggest that sending an SMS reminder to credit card consumers before their payment due date is a simple, cost-effective way to improve their financial wellbeing.

The Productivity Commission is to investigate the long-run economic impacts of transport regulatory reforms agreed by COAG in 2008-09 relating to heavy vehicle safety and productivity, rail safety and maritime safety and to make recommendations for further reforms towards a more integrated national market for transport services.

This paper assesses whether the Newstart Allowance for unemployed people should be increased. It investigates the relationship of the Newstart Allowance to Average Weekly Earnings, the Federal Minimum Wage, and Australian poverty lines, and considers the typical the duration of unemployment and long term unemployment, duration of time on income support, overseas allowances, cost of living, and a comparison with policy makers' remuneration. It finds that the value of the allowance has eroded since it was first set and that unemployment for many is not a transitional situation, and concludes that an increase is warranted to bridge the gap to the poverty line.

In 2017 the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and Australian Defence Force (Australian Army) undertook a joint review of the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Programme (AACAP) to assess its efficiency and effectiveness. The review found AACAP is a highly regarded and effective means of achieving positive environmental and primary health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities while providing valuable training outcomes for Army. AACAP's objectives align with the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) 'Closing the Gap' targets in Indigenous disadvantage and with the Australian Government's Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS). The report identified areas for potential improvement, recommending greater support for the sustainability of infrastructure and project investment, enhanced employment and training opportunities and strengthening of project governance.

The use of behavioural insights in public policy has traditionally focused on small, low cost 'nudges' to improve communications, increase compliance and enhance the way services are delivered. But BETA has begun to look beyond to identify a smaller set of 'richer veins' where BI can offer high financial and social impact. These areas includes consumer choice, financial decision-making and personal wellbeing.

The National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development (NASWD) was agreed by the Australian, State and Territory governments in 2009 and updated in 2012. The NASWD sets out goals for skills attainment by Australians through the vocational education and training (VET) system and commitments to reforms to ensure that the system is accessible, produces high quality services and operates efficiently. This study will assess progress made by governments against the NASWD, and whether the agreement is still an effective long-term framework for government policy and cooperation.

"We investigate the potential of using high-resolution seismic methods for rock characterization and for targeting of gold deposits at the St. Ives gold camp. The application of seismic methods in hard-rock environments is challenged by complex structures, intrinsically low signal-to-noise ratio, regolith distortions, and access restrictions. If these issues can be addressed, then the unparalleled resolving power of reflection seismic can be used for mineral exploration. Appropriate spatial sampling of the wavefield combined with a survey geometry design and rigorous data processing to incorporate high fold and long offsets are necessary for creation of high-quality seismic images. In the hard-rock environment of Western Australia, accurate static corrections and multiphase velocity analysis are essential processing steps. This is followed by a rigorous quality control following each processing step. In such a case, we show that the role of reflection seismic could be lifted from mere identification of first-order structures to refined lithological analyses. Five deep boreholes with sonic logs and core sample test data wer eused to calibrate 2D seismic images. Despite seismic images were produced with relatively robust scaling it was possible to achieve reasonably high seismic-log correlation across three of the tightly spaced boreholes using a single composite wavelet. Amplitude-versus-offset (AVO) analysis indicated that gold-bearing structures may be related to elevated AVO effect and increased reflectivity. Consequently, partial stack analysis and acoustic and elastic inversions were conducted. These results and impedance crossplots were then evaluated against known gold occurrences. While still in the preliminary stages, hard-rock seismic imaging, inversion, and the application of AVO techniques indicated significant potential for targeting mineral reserves" -- Summary.

"A special challenge of hard rock exploration is to identify targets of interest within complex geological settings. Interpretation of the geology can be made from direct geological observations and knowledge of the area, and from 2D or 3D seismic surveys. These interpretations can be developed into 3D geological models that provide the basis for predictions as to likely targets for drilling and/or mining. To verify these predictions we need to simulate 3D seismic wave propagation in the proposed geological models and compare the simulation results to seismic survey data. To achieve this we convert geological surfaces created in an interpretation software package into discretised block models representing the different lithostratigraphic units, and segment these into discrete volumes to which appropriate density and seismic velocity values are assigned. This approach allows us to scale models appropriately for desired wave propagation parameters and to go from local to global geological models and vice versa. Then we use these digital models with forward modelling codes to undertake numerous 3D acoustic wave simulations. Simulations are performed with single shot and with exploding reflector (located on extracted geological surface) configurations" -- Summary.

"Fixed safety cameras that detect red light running and speeding vehicles are known to be an effective method of controlling driver behaviour and producing road safety benefits. While no definitive best practice for choosing safety camera locations was found in the literature, there are a number of criteria that are frequently used and that make sense: locations with a high number of crashes (particularly injury crashes); locations with a high proportion of speeding vehicles; locations with high traffic volumes; locations with large numbers of unprotected road users (pedestrians and bicyclists); different camera types covering different areas of the road network; and deploying cameras widely throughout the road network. Evaluation of the effects of safety cameras on particular sites and as a whole can be attempted using a number of methodologies: changes in crash numbers before and after installation; changes in vehicle speeds before and after installation; and changes in offence detections from the time of installation onwards. There are limitations with each of these methodologies such that evaluating the effectiveness of an individual safety camera is often not possible. By tracking many safety camera sites for a long period of time, the effect of the safety cameras can be examined but there will always be other factors that may explain any observed changes. A true experiment could be conducted to determine safety camera effects but it would involve deliberate non-treatment of good candidate sites for many years. This study gives a reasonable set of principles for selecting safety camera sites and evaluating their effectiveness. However, the detailed processes for South Australia will depend on what data is available, the resources and funding that can be applied, and political and other considerations." -- page 3.

"Fixed safety cameras that detect speeding (and in some cases red light running) are known to be a generally effective method of controlling driver behaviour and producing road safety benefits. They were first introduced in South Australia in 1988 and are now in operation at more than 150 locations around the State. Data on the speeding and red light running offences recorded at each of the sites are now publicly available. If the number of offences declines over time, this is an indication that the safety cameras are becoming increasingly effective in preventing speeding or red light running behaviour. The offence rates of the five types of safety cameras in use in South Australia were examined on a site by site basis. Safety cameras located in South Australian 50-90 km/h speed limit zones in built-up areas showed a similar overall trend in offence rates: speeding offence rates decreased rapidly during the first two to three years of operation; continued declines in speeding offence rates occurred for many years after that; and red light running offences showed general declines over time but not as consistently or to the same extent as speeding offences. Making the cameras more conspicuous from the time of installation may accelerate their positive effects. Safety cameras may also prevent vehicle speeding on high speed rural roads upon installation (this could not be measured here) but there appears to be little change in offence rates after this time. This is possibly due to the more conspicuous nature of these cameras. The tolerances applied to point to point average speed measurements appear to be the same as applied to spot speed measurements and could reasonably be reduced." -- Summary.