RegNet's research engagement

ENGAGEMENT

We are delighted to share some of RegNet’s research engagement highlights for 2021

Professor Veronica Taylor teams with the Deregulation Taskforce in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

Professor Veronica Taylor was embedded as a part time Expert Adviser at the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C). As part of that secondment, she led the research project, ‘How should we modernise document execution in Australia?’

Many of our most frequently used legal documents in Australia remain paperbased, cumbersome to use and difficult to understand. How can we regulate these kinds of documents–and transactions–in ways that balance the policy need for business efficiency with the original purpose of limiting fraud, while safeguarding vulnerable people? Working with Associate Professor Philippa (Pip) Ryan (ANU College of Law), Professor Taylor produced policy recommendations that informed discussion with a wide range of stakeholder groups, including the Law Council of Australia, the Commonwealth Attorney General’s Department, the Treasury and State and Territory policy makers. The project report

is published as Executing document in a digital economy: Rethinking statutory declaration and deeds in Australia. This report received excellent feedback from the Australian Public Service, with Jason McDonald, Division Head, Regulatory Reform Division (PM&C) commenting:

“I just want to draw your attention to a new paper prepared for us by Professor Veronica Taylor from the ANU School of Regulation and Global Governance, ‘How should we modernise document execution in Australia?’ The paper provides a framework for considering reforms to statutory declarations and deeds, as well as surveying current national and international practice. Reform would not only reduce compliance costs by around $500m a year, but potentially set a precedent for the wider shift away from ‘paper, parchment and velum’. We have been honoured to have Professor Taylor as part of the team for the past six months.”

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As part of her work with PM&C, Professor Taylor designed the seminar series, Regulatable, which was hosted by senior colleagues in the Deregulation Taskforce and livestreamed to PM&C and other Commonwealth and state departments.

The presenters and topics drew audiences of over 100 people for each session.

20 August

Professor Jeroen van der Heijden

The good, the bad, and the ugly of regulation in

the 21st century

10 September Professor Kate Henne From digital transactions to digital infrastructure

15 October Professor Cameron Holley Professor Darren Sinclair and Dr Juan Castilla Rho

Regulating resources is hard. Can computational social science data make it easier?

12 November

Professor Veronica Taylor

From stewardship to anticipation: Insights

from contemporary research

10 December

Professor Dimity Kingsford Smith

Better ways to design and use enforceable

undertakings

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Photo by IISD/ENB

Dr Virginia Marshall, an important voice for Indigenous Australians in COP26

RegNet and Fenner School’s Inaugural Indigenous Postdoctoral Fellow Virginia Marshall attended UNFCCC COP26 in Glasgow Scotland as a UN delegate for the Pacific and Knowledge Holder, nominated by the Indigenous Peoples’ Organisation–Australia. She participated in the UN Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples’ Platform and an invited presenter at COP events such as Earth Observation Day.

Dr Virginia Marshall was involved in various COP26 talks where she emphasised the importance of a stronger representation of Indigenous Australians voices at the UN Talks to ensure that the world’s oldest living Indigenous Peoples are heard, particularly in relation to climate change policy and law reform, traditional knowledge protection, water and human rights.

In Episode 3 of COP26 We Got This, Dr Marshall joined hosts Associate Professor Megan Bowman (RegNet alumna and King’s College London) and Dr Will J Grant (Australian National University) to talk about the role of non-state actors, Indigenous Australian knowledge and effective adaptation strategies in tackling climate change.

Dr Marshall was also a panellist on the ‘Transforming Australia: From laggard to leader’ event. She spoke about water security, Indigenous science and knowledge and the need for a change in Australia’s law and policy, amongst other climate issues.

As a panellist in the COP26 Resilience Lab, Dr Marshall discussed with other panellists the concepts and remedies from their Indigenous communities and the need to holistically incorporate different systems, such as science and traditional knowledge. Dr Marshall described Indigenous Australian’s relationship with the Aboriginal environment and Indigenous Peoples desire to protect their traditional remedies from being appropriated and exploited. Panellists mentioned the need to: decommodify water and safeguard it as a basic right; include Indigenous Peoples and traditional knowledge within academia (such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPPC]); and ensure that research is Indigenous-led on Indigenous issues among on Indigenous communities.

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Steve Munns awarded the Sir Roland Wilson Foundation Pat Turner Scholarship 2021 Research Prize

PhD Scholar, Steve Munns, has been awarded the Sir Roland Wilson Foundation Pat Turner Scholarship 2021 Research Prize for his contribution to public policy in the past year. Steve is currently completing his PhD focused on service user violence and aggression against frontline Australian commonwealth public servants with RegNet.

Steve is one of four outstanding scholars who have been recognised for their commitment in strengthening the links between public policy and practice and engaging across academia.

The Sir Roland Wilson Pat Turner Scholarship program enhances the capability of the Australian Public Service by developing strong Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

Australian leaders through high-quality research and skills training, building on the legacy of Pat Turner AM.

Vice-Chancellor of The Australian National University, Professor Brian Schmidt, thanked the prize winners for their efforts in strengthening the link between academic research and public policy development. He encouraged the scholars to continue this important work and further embrace their role as ambassadors for the Foundation, and as mentors of future scholars and APS leaders.

� Sir Roland Wilson Foundation.

“ It is these scholars who are building powerful networks: with each other, with academia and the broader public service. These networks will allow Australia to be agile, innovative and access expert knowledge quickly to solve the problems we are facing,”

Professor Brian Schmidt, ANU Vice-Chancellor

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Survivor initiated-restorative justice as a pathway to justice for sexual assault in the Australian Capital Territory

In August, the RegNet’s Centre for Restorative Justice co-convened the symposium, Survivor Initiated-Restorative Justice as a Pathway to Justice for Sexual Assault with the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods. The aim of the symposium was to highlight the role that restorative justice can play in addressing the needs of survivors of sexual assault in the ACT.

Restorative justice is an approach to harm that focuses on healing. It involves dialogue (face to face, via written communication, via intermediaries or tele or video conference) between those who have caused harm and those who experienced harm, focusing on who has been impacted and how, and what can be done to heal and move forward. In the context of sexual assault, a restorative approach may enable a survivor to have questions about their assault answered, and to address ongoing fears and concerns, such as how to navigate potential future interactions with the person who caused harm.

As MLA Dr Marisa Paterson, who opened the symposium reflected, sexual violence in Australia is endemic and broad scale cultural change is urgently required.

Since 2018, the ACT Restorative Justice Unit has accepted referrals for cases of sexual assault and family violence. At the symposium, we heard from a survivor who spoke about her positive experience taking part in a restorative

justice conference facilitated by the unit. She highlighted the way in which the response was personalised and responsive to her particular needs as well as being empowering and flexible. After her restorative justice conference, she reflected,

“ I could leave that room feeling like I had said everything I needed to say.” She also noted, “I was given options at every point, it was all catered to me, and when the options didn’t fit, a personal option was made.”

The symposium also heard from speakers about a range of community-based restorative justice initiatives that work to address the needs of survivors of sexual assault and are available separately from the criminal justice system.

As a result of this engagement, symposium convenor, Professor Miranda Forsyth, and coconvenor, Professor Meredith Rossner (Centre for Social Research and Methods, ANU) were invited to write an editorial on the topic for the International Journal of Restorative justice.

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RegNet Research Director’s research featured at key proceedings

In recent ‘proof of concept’ publications, Professor Susan Sell traced the effects of macroeconomic structural change to social outcomes focused on health. Her work showed how intellectual property (IP) protection and financialisation have shaped access to Universal Health Care; unequal disease burdens; and COVID-19 responses.

This work has been of great interest to a diverse range of audiences and Professor Sell has been invited to share her work at important events:

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As an invited speaker at ‘The international economic order: Old and new,’ UN Conference on Trade and Development, Young Scholars Initiative, Summer training and mentoring program for post-graduates from the Global South (230 students). Geneva, Switzerland. August 2, 2021.

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As a featured guest at the podcast, ‘COVID-19, IP protection, and the rights to vaccines,’ ‘Cooperadio,’ Centre for Global Cooperation Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. May 21, 2021.

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Webinar, ‘IP monopoly capitalism,’ Society for International Development, Rome, Italy. May 19, 2021.

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Keynote speaker at “Asia’s global business in the new era,” College of Business, Rikkyo University, Tokyo, and the VJSS Institute, Foreign Trade University, Hanoi, Vietnam.

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Lecture and dialogue with civil society organisations and politicians, ‘What COVID-19 reveals about 21 st century capitalism’, Centres for Learning Health Systems and Medical Sciences (Korea University), School of Public Health (Seoul National University), and Knowledge Commune, Seoul, Korea. March 10, 2021.

Professor Sell was a Visiting Scholar at the Mortara Center at Georgetown University from August to December 2021.

� View Professor Susan Sell’s profile

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