Reem Sweid

ABSTRACT In 2017, we conducted a research project in Victoria, Australia, aimed at improving understanding of the unique service needs and delivery requirements for vulnerable members of the Muslim LGBTIQ+ community in Victoria. The study involved semi-structured interviews with 12 members of the LGBTIQ+ Muslim community discussing their experiences with 3 identified areas of service provision: Muslim services, LGBTIQ+ services, and mainstream services. The findings demonstrate how participants’ sexualities, gender identities and religious beliefs affect their healthcare access and use, the meanings they derive from such experiences, and the accountability and culpability of systemic and structural inequities. The paper concludes with a summary of recommendations for future research, resourcing and realisation.

The growing intellectual and policy debate around optimal approaches to diversity governance, particularly in relation to criticism of multiculturalism, is now entering a new phase characterised by advocating alternative conceptual and policy paradigms most notably interculturalism. Proposing a conceptual complementarity approach, rather than dogmatically oppositional stances, this paper approaches interculturalism as offering heuristic additive values to multiculturalism. As the paper shows, the Australian context indeed offers an optimal case study for conceptualising and engaging with interculturalism within an otherwise resilient multicultural framework. Australia’s unique and strong multicultural ethos has combined with successful intercultural strategies at different levels of diversity governance, policy and practice across various sectoral terrains. This paper uses an online national survey to examine the public understanding of and attitudes towards multiculturalism and int...

Over the past two decades, the UK has led global efforts in the production of knowledge and practice of preventing ‘radicalisation’—a process by which individuals become violent extremists. Along with the rest of the world, Australia has largely adopted the conceptualisations and policies implemented by the UK. Despite the prolific number of publications and generous funding for institutions dedicated to the topic, the conceptualisation of ‘radicalisation’ remains largely contested and ill-defined. Nevertheless, policymakers in the UK and Australia have relied on this field of knowledge to develop and implement policies and programs under the remit of counterterrorism and national security. The emergence of the field of critical terrorism studies has provided a milieu in which the effects of ‘radicalisation’ policies have been critiqued in relation to their discriminating and ‘othering’ effects. However, there has been no comprehensive in-depth analysis of the conceptualisation of ‘radicalisation’ and its rationalities as they manifest in contemporary policies and discourse. This thesis investigates the problematisation of ‘radicalisation’ in current discourse by applying a poststructural lens and utilising Bacchi’s method of inquiry. Inspired by Foucault’s concepts of ‘power’, ‘knowledge’ and ‘governmentality’, the study deconstructs the policy discourse to identify the discursive and subjective formations within the discourse. This is achieved by a systematic analysis of policy documents and explorative interviews with academics, experts, community leaders and government officials. A critical exploration of these texts reveals the effects and consequences of the ‘radicalisation discourse’, which has contributed to stigmatisation of Muslim communities in the UK and Australia. Its focus on the ‘other’ has inhibited its capacity to address rising far-right extremism. The widening geography in which rationalities of ‘radicalisation’ are implemented has securitised social cohesion and social services. Additionally, there are national and global implications arising from the rationalities underpinning the contemporary conceptualisation of ‘radicalisation’. These have contributed to the institutionalisation of ‘pre-crime’ rationalities, increased government control of the internet and encroached on the rights of dissent and activism in liberal democracies. The objective of this Foucauldian-inspired critique is to identify these effects and to provoke alternative conceptualisations of ‘radicalisation’, which may have been elided as a result of the reactive constitution of the discourse.

The National Research Study on the Service Response to Past Adoption Practices examined the extent and effects of closed adoptions in Australia, to strengthen the evidence available to governments and service providers in addressing the current needs of those affected. With over 1500 participants, the study results provide an indepth understanding of the complex and, in many cases, urgent public health needs of those affected. These implications not only include the addressing the effects of ongoing trauma, grief and loss associated with past practices, but also the implications for adopted individuals and subsequent generations who want access to genetic and medical histories. The article highlights the characteristics of practice interventions that study participants deemed necessary to adequately respond to their current needs and, importantly, reflects on the parallels existing between the current adoption and assisted reproduction environments and the lessons needing to be lear...

Based on interviews with 94 parents in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia, this report investigates parents' knowledge of and attitudes towards early childhood education. Executive summary This report documents the background, methodology and findings from the Access to Early Childhood Education (AECE): Qualitative Study, undertaken by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) and commissioned by the then Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR; now the Department of Education) on behalf of the Early Childhood Data Subgroup (ECDSG). This research was commissioned within the context of the National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education (NP ECE), which jointly committed the Commonwealth and all state and territory governments to achieving universal access to preschool by 2013. The AECE Qualitative Study was undertaken in order to develop a qualitative evidence base about how the concept of “access” to early ch...

The key focus of the study is to improve knowledge about the extent and effects of past adoption practices, and to strengthen the evidence available to governments to address the current needs of individuals affected by past adoption practices, including information, counselling, search and contact services, and other supports. The practices in Australia around the permanent transfer of parental legal rights and responsibilities from a child’s birth parent(s) to adoptive parent(s) have varied over time. The Australian Senate noted in their report on the Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices (Senate Community Affairs References Committee, 2012; “the Senate Inquiry”) that “adoption as it is now understood is a peculiarly twentieth century phenomenon” (p. 3). Not only have adoption practices in Australia undergone considerable change, so too have society’s responses to pregnancies outside of marriage and single motherhood. Until a range of social, l...

Summary: It is commonly stated that there is a need for flexible child care to be available to parents especially for those who work variable or non-standard hours, given the 24/7 nature of today's labour market. But Australian and international research shows that parents' decision-making about work and child care is complex and varied. This research report explores how parents make decisions about work and care, especially when faced with shift work or inflexible job conditions. We ask here, what flexible child care arrangements are families seeking, and are those arrangements available? We further ask what are the barriers to families accessing different models of flexible care? This research draws upon interviews with Australian parents, with many of them working as police or nurses and so directly able to discuss how their child care needs are met in a context of working variable or non-standard hours. This interview data is examined along with some national survey data...

The growing intellectual and policy debate around optimal approaches to diversity governance, particularly in relation to criticism of multiculturalism, is now entering a new phase characterised by advocating alternative conceptual and policy paradigms most notably interculturalism. Proposing a conceptual complementarity approach, rather than dogmatically oppositional stances, this paper approaches interculturalism as offering heuristic additive values to multiculturalism. As the paper shows, the Australian context indeed offers an optimal case study for conceptualising and engaging with interculturalism within an otherwise resilient multicultural framework. Australia's unique and strong multicultural ethos has combined with successful inter-cultural strategies at different levels of diversity governance, policy and practice across various sectoral terrains. This paper uses an online national survey to examine the public understanding of and attitudes towards multiculturalism and interculturalism as supposedly distinct yet interconnected policy tools relating to the ever-changing diversity governance agenda.

The ‘Doing Diversity Project’,  examines how the community sees the future of multiculturalism, their understanding of the emerging intercultural paradigm and the possibility for advancing the diversity agenda through an alternative deliberative approach.

The practices in Australia around the permanent transfer of parental legal rights and responsibilities from a child’s birth parent(s) to adoptive parent(s) have varied over time. The Australian Senate noted in their report on the Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices (Senate Community Affairs References Committee, 2012; “the Senate Inquiry”) that “adoption as it is now understood is a peculiarly twentieth century phenomenon” (p. 3).

Not only have adoption practices in Australia undergone considerable change, so too have society’s responses to pregnancies outside of marriage and single motherhood. Until a range of social, legal and economic changes in the 1970s, unwed (single) women who were pregnant were encouraged—or forced—to “give up” their babies for adoption. The shame and silence that surrounded pregnancy out of wedlock meant that these women were seen as “unfit” mothers. The practices at the time, called “closed adoption”, were seen as the solution. “Closed adoption” was where an adopted child’s original birth certificate was sealed forever and an amended birth certificate issued that established the child’s new identity and relationship with their adoptive family.

Given the prevalence of adoption in Australia in the second half of the twentieth century— particularly in the 1960s and early 1970s—a significant proportion of the population has had some experience of or exposure to issues relating to adoption. The rationale for conducting the current study—the National Research Study on the Service Response to Past Adoption Practices—is to improve the adequacy of the evidence base for understanding the issues and the needs of those affected.

Despite there being a wealth of primary material, there has been little systematic research on the experience of past adoption practices in Australia. The focus has also been on mothers’ experiences of “forced adoption” and the experiences of adoptees, with less focus on fathers, adoptive parents and other family members.

The Department of Families, Housing Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) commissioned the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) to undertake the current study on behalf of the Community and Disability Services Ministers’ Conference (CDSMC). It complements the Senate Community Affairs References Committee (2012) inquiry into the Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices. The Senate committee was charged with inquiring into the role, if any, of the Commonwealth Government in forced adoption practices, and its potential role in developing a national framework to address the consequences for mothers, their families and children who were subjected to forced adoption policies. Although our study includes participants with experiences of forced adoption, it includes perspectives from all people potentially affected by past adoption practices (adopted persons, mothers, fathers, adoptive parents, other family members) and service providers, and relates to the full range of adoption circumstances, not just experiences of force/coercion.

Although the Senate Inquiry’s terms of reference were focused on the experience of forced adoption and the role of the Commonwealth in these practices, the report of the Senate Inquiry (2012) also provided a number of insights into the experience of trauma, and how those affected can best be served. The report highlighted the “ongoing nature of the trauma caused by forced adoption, and the consequent need for counselling” (p. 219). Due to the complexity of grief, a consistent theme was the need for specific counselling services by well-trained and experienced professionals. In particular, the Senate Inquiry acknowledged that it was “not aware of any research comparing the effectiveness of trauma counselling by trained professionals and the support provided by members of peer support groups” (p. 232). One of the strengths of the current study is its systematic examination of the kinds of support and professional services received by affected individuals, and the identification of those that were seen as being the most helpful.

The National Research Study on the Service Response to Past Adoption Practices examined the extent and effects of closed adoptions in Australia, to strengthen the evidence available to governments and service providers in addressing the current needs of those affected. With over 1500 participants, the study results provide an indepth understanding of the complex and, in many cases, urgent public health needs of those affected. These implications not only include the addressing the effects of ongoing trauma, grief and loss associated with past practices, but also the implications for adopted individuals and subsequent generations who want access to genetic and medical histories. The article highlights the characteristics of practice interventions that study participants deemed necessary to adequately respond to their current needs and, importantly, reflects on the parallels existing between the current adoption and assisted reproduction environments and the lessons needing to be learned from past practices.

The Australian Government response to the recommendations of the Senate Inquiry into the Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices (the “Senate Inquiry”) was announced by the then Prime Minister, the Hon. Julia Gillard, when she apologised on behalf of the Australian Government to people affected by forced adoption or removal policies and practices on 21 March 2013.

The government response stated a scoping study would be conducted to provide guidance in relation to the:
 establishment of specialist support and counselling services;
 availability of peer-support groups;
 extension of current family tracing and support services; and
 extension of state and territory Find and Connect information services to include adoption service providers.

In July 2013, the then Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) (now the Department of Social Services) commissioned the Australian Institute of Family Studies to undertake the Forced Adoption Support Services Scoping Study (the “Scoping Study”).

The purpose of the Scoping Study is to develop options for service models that will enhance and complement the existing service system to improve support for people affected by forced adoption and removal policies and practices. The Scoping Study is not about making specific recommendations as to which organisation(s) should be resourced to provide services to those affected by forced adoption.

Based on interviews with 94 parents in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia, this report investigates parents' knowledge of and attitudes towards Early Childhood Education (ECE), how different delivery systems affect participation, the key factors that influence parents, the factors that may support parents' use of ECE, Indigenous families, and parents' views on overcoming barriers to access.

It is commonly stated that there is a need for flexible child care to be available to parents especially for those who work variable or non-standard hours, given the 24/7 nature of today's labour market. But Australian and international research shows that parents' decision-making about work and child care is complex and varied. This research report explores how parents make decisions about work and care, especially when faced with shift work or inflexible job conditions.

We ask here, what flexible child care arrangements are families seeking, and are those arrangements available? We further ask what are the barriers to families accessing different models of flexible care? This research draws upon interviews with Australian parents, with many of them working as police or nurses and so directly able to discuss how their child care needs are met in a context of working variable or non-standard hours. This interview data is examined along with some national survey data, and also survey data from parents of children engaged with specific school-aged care services, to include the perspectives of other Australian families.

Over the past two decades, the UK has led global efforts in the production of knowledge and practice of preventing ‘radicalisation’—a process by which individuals become violent extremists. Along with the rest of the world, Australia has largely adopted the conceptualisations and policies implemented by the UK. Despite the prolific number of publications and generous funding for institutions dedicated to the topic, the conceptualisation of ‘radicalisation’ remains largely contested and ill-defined. Nevertheless, policymakers in the UK and Australia have relied on this field of knowledge to develop and implement policies and programs under the remit of counterterrorism and national security. The emergence of the field of critical terrorism studies has provided a milieu in which the effects of ‘radicalisation’ policies have been critiqued in relation to their discriminating and ‘othering’ effects. However, there has been no comprehensive in-depth analysis of the conceptualisation of ‘radicalisation’ and its rationalities as they manifest in contemporary policies and discourse.
This thesis investigates the problematisation of ‘radicalisation’ in current discourse by applying a poststructural lens and utilising Bacchi’s method of inquiry. Inspired by Foucault’s concepts of ‘power’, ‘knowledge’ and ‘governmentality’, the study deconstructs the policy discourse to identify the discursive and subjective formations within the discourse. This is achieved by a systematic analysis of policy documents and explorative interviews with academics, experts, community leaders and government officials. A critical exploration of these texts reveals the effects and consequences of the ‘radicalisation discourse’, which has contributed to stigmatisation of Muslim communities in the UK and Australia. Its focus on the ‘other’ has inhibited its capacity to address rising far-right extremism.
The widening geography in which rationalities of ‘radicalisation’ are implemented has securitised social cohesion and social services. Additionally, there are national and global implications arising from the rationalities underpinning the contemporary conceptualisation of ‘radicalisation’. These have contributed to the institutionalisation of ‘pre-crime’ rationalities, increased government control of the internet and encroached on the rights of dissent and activism in liberal democracies. The objective of this Foucauldian-inspired critique is to identify these effects and to provoke alternative conceptualisations of ‘radicalisation’, which may have been elided as a result of the reactive constitution of the discourse.