Mae307 : Economic Policy And Assessment Answers

The world has changed within a very short time in terms of human affairs and morality, the known dictates of the societal standards of life. Since the adoption of the Commonwealth policing in Australia, years ago, there has been an increase in the use of technological data in lots of human interactions. The social nature of humanity and human interactions have evolved because of the interactions of the technology and data manipulations to influence the globalization processes and much of what people can or cannot do. In the discussion of the social and economic control in the world, the issues of policing department come to the picture. Thus, in this context, the discussion revolves around the AAustralian Federal Police Spending on Drug Investigation Services in 2016-17 based on the social CBA framework of estimating the commercial and the social rate of return from the resources invested in the investigation of drugs during the period.

Literature review Measurement of direct [primary market] total social benefits [TSB]

Based on the statement of McFadden & Toni-Lee porter (2011), it is prudent for the Policing department of the Federal Australia have the responsibility of dealing with many old-styled crime patterns that have changed with a progressively extensive perspective of new and complex types of crime. The reason for this is that it would create a vibrant setting in which the police department is distinctively in a position to perform their duty. Based on the reports form the department, there is every reason to believe that the department has the capabilities and personnel for local, national, and global operations especially on matters pertaining to cyberspace, thus to protect the people of Australia as well as the interest of Australia from criminal activities wherever they may arise (Stafford & Burns, 2010). The department is steadily focused on the policing operations and law enforcement capabilities by complementing them with technological and specialized know-hows that have proven to be significant in increasingly innovative environment. In this way, the old-fashioned systems are changing in the policing agency of Australia with a focus of harnessing the building phase of the organizational capability.

The commitment of the Australian policing department involves the commitment to warrant that the department is in a position to sustain its goodwill in a better platform so that people can trust in their abilities to meet the demands on us now and into the future. In the past decade, there have been some snaps of achievements in this department, especially between the brief periods of 2016 to 2017 (Beletsky, Macalino, & Burris, 2015). Some of the achievements involve disruption and investigation, governance and accountability, community engagement, internal collaboration, and national collaboration.

On the disruption nd investigation, it is important to realize that the department has seized over 15 tons of illicit drugs and precursors; they have controlled more than an equivalence of $93.3 million in criminal assets, and 955 court conviction rate (Miller, 2012). Based on their activities, they have ensured that over $225 million benefits have been injected into the economy from the successful financial crime investigations (Mugford, 2013). They have also made over 730 arrests from the crimes associated with the commonwealth and have charged over 27 people for crimes related to terrorism investigations and 348 courts convictions.

Concerning the governance and accountability, the Australian police department have strengthened staff engagement at all level of the management connecting the senior and the front-line officers. The departments have also made strides in ensuring that the gender targets have exceeded in protective services of office recruitment plans (Weatherburn, Jones Freeman, & Makkai, 2013). Surveys that are done also prove that over 80% of the public and the stakeholders are satisfied with the service rendered by the Australian department in their programs.

In the same way, concerning the community engagement, it is true that community policing has become fundamental in the protective service that the department do (Moore & Moore, 2008). Therefore, they have engaged the public using the various social media platforms like the twitters and the Facebook to follow up with the trends of the community. Lastly on this front, they have enhanced cyber safety among many primary and secondary schools in Australia.

The economic Value of the irrigation water consumed in Victoria in 2016

Irrigation water is normally a futuristic ordeal akin to averting the negative attributes of the climatic changes in the face of a growing population. For purposes of healthy environment, sometimes it is possible to include irrigation for a prosperous economy with growing agricultural production in a thriving community. The economic value of the irrigation water consumed in Victoria, especially in 2016 is the increased agricultural production.

The fluctuations in the quality of water and its reliability have diverse effects on the cost of business. These fluctuations may be caused by man-made factors or natural ones. Based on the analysis of Grafton, Horne, & Wheeler (2016), more than 40,000 of farms that have not been irrigated in the Basin rely on the Basin's water resources for stock and domestic needs. In this way, it is prudent to argue that the quality and the reliability of the water have a direct impact on the profitability in the farms and thus, their quality of life of the farming families. However, in the perspective multi farming, most farms meant for grazing reap benefits of the periodic flooding because such events boost productivity on their floodplains, improving profitability.

The water for irrigation supports farmers in the Victorian community because it helps them adjust to the drier future and ensure the farmers maximize their value of agricultural production with the available water (Gill, Webb, Stott, Cheng, Wilkinson, & Cossens, 2017). Thus, the economic value is identified within the spheres of maximized value of agricultural production in comparison with the investment made for irrigation and water preservations.

The rates of irrigation return in the commercial and social perspective in Victoria in 2016

The agricultural practise in Victoria has a pivotal input to the Australia’s economy at large. The land which is irrigated in Victoria alone is estimated to be $4.9 billion worth in 2014-15 (ABS 2016). Out of this portion, the total agricultural production from irrigation alone is about 33% in Australia.  Based on the data given by Qureshi, Schwabe, Connor & Kirby (2010), it was noted that the irrigation began in Victoria in the 19^th century. As a result, there is an increasing change in the infrastructure that needs to update its style to suit the contemporary modes of irrigation. While many kilometres of channels and pipelines are used in the provision of water to Victoria’s agriculture industries, this is a significant investment meant for our future. As a result of this investment, there is an investment of $2.4 billion by Victorian government in water arrangement schemes to update the systems of irrigation that would suit the modern demand of water to extend the grid in expanding this comfort to the upcountry society. The financial injection comes from the donations from the Victorian Government, Commonwealth Government and Water Corporations (Grafton, Horne, & Wheeler, 2016). This means that the society is already putting much of its hope in irrigation as a means for social and commercial benefits.

In northern Victoria, of the total volume traded, about 40% was trades between accounts held by environmental water holders. Excluding trades between environmental accounts, the volume of allocation trade in 2016-17 was around 20% higher than the volume traded in 2015-16. The high volume of trade was partly a result of large volumes of trade late in the season to organize unused allocation for carryover into 2017-18.

The allocation available under water shares may be traded separately from the water share and from land (Lai, Bruno, Hall, Gartner, Kirkbride, & Mueller, 2013). Allocation trade includes trade of allocation made available under water shares and bulk entitlements. Allocation made available under water shares may also be tagged for use in another location. This is another way that water allocation can move between trading zones. However, water allocation in tagged accounts retains its trading zone source characteristics until it is used in another location.

The Net economic value for the water consumed for industrial use in Victoria in 2016

The enhancements of the environmental conditions through irrigation have supported local agribusinesses through the domestic use of irrigation water in Australia. This is in respect to those who are ardent in their effort to advertise their products as a profound result from their agricultural and water consumption efforts.  A cost-benefit analysis approaches ‘have influences through a different lens by examining total social benefits (TSB) and total social cost (TSC). The assessment into the economic value of the water for industrial use in Victoria sometimes put a total value on the ecosystem services that are being given by the resources of Basin water as well as to determine the degree to which extra water from the environment is provided by the Basin Plan may have added to that significance. The recent studies done by MDBA found out that the water resource from the Basin is vital in providing a substantial services of ecosystem that are effective in water recovery that is required in supporting the capacity for sustainability in the same manner. Below is a summary of the assumed economic value of the water consumed for industrial use in Victoria in the year.

Industrial = -0.29

-0.29 = [-b]*[$7.50M/1,316PJ]; -b = 50.89.

Qd = a – bP

1,316 = a – 50.89(7.5); a = 1,698

Qd = 1,698 – 50.89P

There is need to estimate the impact the additional agricultural production have on price

TSB = TPB = (X₂ – X₁) 1/2(P₁ + P₂)    

Considering P (Q) and P = 33 – 0.0197Qd, then P = 33 – 0.0197(1319.5) = 7M [initial production = 1316 PJ + extra production 3.5 PJ]

Reduction in price = 7.5m – 7m = 0.5 million.

Using the formulae TPB = TSB = [3.5PJ]*0.5($7.5m + $7.37m) = $26.02 million. This is the economic value of the increment of agricultural production.

The social economic benefit of water may at some surpass just irrigation, but extensive to include drinking and other interventions that may be small scaled or large scaled. Based on the study done by Carey, Krumholz, Duignan, McConell, Browne, Burns, & Lawrence, (2016), the complexity of intervention may involves direct and indirect outcomes. The interventions may also involve physical or socioeconomic systems. Under this perspectives, the economic assessment of water and irrigation interventions cover changes in the agricultural and social security through food production.

According to Coombes, Smit, Byrne & Walsh, (2016), sustainability is a keyword in wider development thinking as well as in economic assessment. Sustainability involves explicit consideration of long-term processes. Economic assessments clearly cannot be delayed indefinitely to assess impact and sustainability. Hence, assessment frameworks need to be able to incorporate long-term processes and the associated inevitable uncertainty (Grafton, Horne, & Wheeler, 2016). Therefore, in the irrigation schemes in Victorian region, the focus framework of the basic social cost–benefit analysis model builds on standard commercial, financial cost–benefit analysis of irrigation.

According to McFadden & Toni-Lee porter (2011), concerning the first economic principles, it known that the economist’s fundamental measure of social benefits is maximum WTP, or willingness to accept compensation. Travellers do not have the legal right to demand train travel, so the WTP is used to measure of benefits. In this case, the first step in assessing the social value of the proposed transport is to calibrate a ‘market’ demand curve.

The basic question when assessing the socio-economic benefits involves determining how the demand curves for transport measurement from one point to the other.  Focusing on the benefit to the society, it is to measure of marginal private benefits (MPB) to users of any proposed transport system and since these users are part of wider society, it also measures marginal social benefits (MSB) of the transportation trip (Carey, Krumholz, Duignan, McConell, Browne, Burns & Lawrence, 2016). Some of the social benefits of the project listed by the PTV are better dealt with in an economic impact study rather than a consumer surplus measure for a social cost-benefit analysis.

The following parameters are used in estimating TSB for 2016: (i) In 2016, 1800 passengers are using the line on an average weekday, which translates into 1800*5*50 (weeks) = Q = 450,000 passengers a year; (ii) Ticket price = P = $25; (iii) Value of elasticity for transport travel -0.35.

References:

Attewell, R. G., & McFadden, M. (2008). Measuring the benefits of drug law enforcement: the development of the Australian Federal Police Drug Harm Index. Bulletin on Narcotics, 60.

Beletsky, L., Macalino, G. E., & Burris, S. (2015). Attitudes of police officers towards syringe access, occupational needle-sticks, and drug use: a qualitative study of one city police department in the United States. International Journal of drug policy, 16(4), 267-274.

Bessant, J. (2008). From ‘harm minimization’to ‘zero tolerance’drugs policy in Australia: how the Howard government changed its mind. Policy Studies, 29(2), 197-214.

Carey, R., Krumholz, F., Duignan, K., McConell, K., Browne, J. L., Burns, C., & Lawrence, M. (2016). Integrating agriculture and food policy to achieve sustainable peri-urban fruit and vegetable production in Victoria, Australia. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 1(3), 181-195.

Collins, D., & Lapsley, H. M. (2008). The costs of tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug abuse to Australian society in 2004/05 (pp. 41-47). Canberra: Department of Health and Ageing.

Coombes, P. J., Smit, M., Byrne, J., & Walsh, C. J. (2016). Water resources, stormwater and waterway benefits of water conservation measures for Australian capital cities. In Proceedings of Conference: Stormwater2016, Stormwater Australia.

Cooper, H., Moore, L., Gruskin, S., & Krieger, N. (2005). The impact of a police drug crackdown on drug injectors’ ability to practice harm reduction: a qualitative study. Social science & medicine, 61(3), 673-684.

Darke, S., Kaye, S., & Topp, L. (2002). Cocaine use in New South Wales, Australia, 1996–2000: 5 year monitoring of trends in price, purity, availability and use from the illicit drug reporting system. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 67(1), 81-88.