Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Arrg help me with Economics

This will not provide the answers to the Eco trial. However if you are not sure how to explain a concept or want it explained in another way you should investigate Mr. Wood. This web site may provide you with some additional confidence. If you go to his site which is actually set up for the VCE or Victorian equivalent of the HSC it has some great information, history and analysis.
Unit 1 is intro and yr 11 work
Unit 2 is globalisation and trade policy.
Unit 3 is economic issues.
and Unit 4 is the role of government and government policies.

If you choose say Issues- External Stability and then go to the bottom of the page it then goes through page 1 definitions, 2- Measurement, 3- Terms of Trade, 4- Measurement limitations, 5- recent Aus performance, 6&7- demand factors, 8&9- supply factors, 10- policy approach, 11- International comparisons.

Another point of note is that the statistics button shows graphs and history of the important economic indicators with explanations. If you are after the very latest figures the best site is the Reserve Bank which has the cash rate, inflation and latest exchange rates on the front page if you after more than this then go to the chart pack and investigate further.

Lastly as I mentioned the other day a good source of updated info for your case study is the Economist web site- go to the Country briefings on the left and then all country briefings- it has sepcial links to the BRIC nations but up to date on many, many others.

Good luck.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Plea Bargaining - reform of vicitms' rights


A discussion has resurfaced regarding the balance of rights of the victim versus the offender's rights to defend themselves in a court of law. At present the 1996 Vicitms Rights' Act has a charter of rights to protect victims. This can be read in full on the Austlii site, with the charter setting out that a victim should be kept informed about bail, release of the offender that they be given support to present a victim impact statement and that they can be relieved from attending preliminary and committal hearings.
However one case in particular has given the impetus for future reform. A woman survived a brutal atatck from an ex partner who had stalked her for several years. He savaged her face with a knife and left her with brain damage to then be charged with attempted murder. The charge was reduced from attempted murder to malicious injury with intent despite her not being informed about this change in the charge. All reference to the knife had been removed from the trial- this difference being 25 yearsfor attempted murder to the standard period of 7 years. For further reading on this case see "Forced to take on the system" .
Thus with this in the background the Sentencing Council which is one of the key agencies of reform has been instructed to begin a paper on plea bargaining.

This is good information regarding the process of reform, the nature of society changing and rights of victims'.