Matthew Fisher
Biographic Data
| ID | 3777069 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Matthew Fisher |
| GIVEN NAMES | Matthew |
| FAMILY NAME | Fisher |
| SIGNATURE | FISHER M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Flinders University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3756-1146 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 51 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 181 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 50 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1956 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Did Australian policy prepare for a harmful algal bloom with significant human health impacts? Analysis and lessons from South Australia
A harmful algal bloom (HAB) has spread to a third of South Australia’s coasts, has devastated marine life and is affecting human physical and mental health and the fishing and tourism industries. We examine Australian Federal and State environmental and agricultural public policies to determine how well they were prepared to prevent and respond to a HAB with human health consequences. Document analysis techniques were used to examine the framing …
Next Steps in Decolonising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Primary Health Care Policy in Australia: An Analysis of Key Stakeholder Views
Following a failed 2023 referendum on constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Australian governments must work with Indigenous leaders to chart a new way forward in policy to support Indigenous health and wellbeing. Here we report on key stakeholder views on what is required to decolonise Indigenous primary health care (PHC) policy. This article reports on qualitative research conducting yarns with 20 senior st…
Analysing the inconsistent recognition of Indigenous rights in early childhood policy documents from the Australian Government's "Closing the Gap" strategy between 2008-2018
We analysed Australian government strategic policy documents related to the "Closing the Gap" (CTG) strategy in early childhood circa 2008-2018 to explore the extent to which Indigenous rights are named and recognised in written policy. Our analysis of the policies was informed by Bacchi's What's the Problem approach and showed inconsistency in the recognition of Indigenous rights. These rights are sometimes undermined and ignored, sometimes impl…
To what extent does early childhood education policy in Australia recognise and propose action on the social determinants of health and health equity
Early childhood education (ECE) and development is internationally recognised as important to child health and wellbeing and to enabling children to become healthy productive adults. This paper analyses Australian ECE policy current in 2019. It uses the institutional framework of ideas, actors and institutions to determine the extent to which ECE policy recognises and acts on social determinants of health and health equity. We found that the poli…
Reviving health promotion in South Australia: The role of ideas, actors and institutional forces
Globally health promotion has remained marginalized while biomedical health systems have maintained and even increased their dominance. During 2019–2021 we drew on the local and historical knowledge of actors from multiple sectors through semi-structured interviews and focus groups, to assess the implications of the withdrawal of the state from health promotion in a suburban region of South Australia. Institutional theory enabled in-depth analysi…
Information without knowledge: The effects of Internet search on learning
The Internet has radically shifted how people access information. Instead of storing information internally, increasingly, people outsource to the Internet and retrieve it when needed. While this is an efficient strategy in many ways, its downstream consequences remain largely unexplored. This research examines how accessing online information impacts how people remember information in a learning context. Across five experiments, participants stu…
Assessing the health impacts of transnational corporations: A case study of Carlton and United Breweries in Australia
BACKGROUND: The practices of transnational corporations (TNCs) affect population health through unhealthy products, shaping social determinants of health, or influencing the regulatory structures governing their activities. There has been limited research on community exposures to TNC policies and practices. The aim of this paper was to adapt existing Health Impact Assessment methods that were previously used for both a fast food and an extractiv…
Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Theories of Wellbeing and Their Suitability for Wellbeing Policy
A growing interest among governments in policies to promote wellbeing has the potential to revive a social view of health promotion. However, success may depend on the way governments define wellbeing and conceptualize ways to promote it. We analyze theories of wellbeing to discern twelve types of wellbeing theory and assess the suitability of each type of theory as a basis for effective wellbeing policies. We used Durie's methodology of working …
Promoting action on structural drivers of health inequity: Principles for policy evaluation
Background: Insufficient progress has been made towards reducing health inequities, due in part to a lack of action on the root causes of health inequities. At present, there is a limited evidence base to guide policy decision making in this space. Key points for discussion: This paper proposes new principles for researchers to conduct health equity policy evaluation. Four key principles are presented: (1) where to evaluate – shifting from famili…
Makers-in-Residence: An Apprenticeship Model for Supporting Pre-Service Elementary Teachers to Adopt Making Tools and Technologies
The Off by 100% Bias: The Effects of Percentage Changes Greater than 100% on Magnitude Judgments and Consumer Choice
Percentage changes greater than 100% are frequently used in consumer contexts; for example, a cordless vacuum cleaner may boast '125% longer runtime' compared to competitors. Via six studies (n = 2,395) and 11 supplementary studies (n = 3,249), the current research shows that consumers systematically underestimate the magnitude of percentage changes greater than 100%. Specifically, many consumers apply the relative size usage (e.g., '125% of,' eq…
Moving Social Policy from Mental Illness to Public Wellbeing
In the face of global epidemics of mental ill-health, the future of social policy lies with promotion of public wellbeing. This article aims to provide an explanatory rationale and methods for a fundamental shift in social policy; away from a remedial focus on mental ill-health defined in terms of disease or aberrant behaviour and toward a focus on universal access to social conditions favourable to psychological wellbeing. The paper begins with …
Applying Crime Prevention and Health Promotion Frameworks to the Problem of High Incarceration Rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Populations: Lessons from a Case Study from Victoria
This article examines what kinds of policy reforms are required to reduce incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through a case study of policy in the Australian state of Victoria. This state provides a good example of a jurisdiction with policies focused upon, and developed in partnership with, Aboriginal communities in Victoria, but which despite this has steadily increasing incarceration rates of Indigenous people.…
City deals and health equity in Sydney, Australia
Stakeholder perceptions of policy implementation for Indigenous health and cultural safety: A study of Australia's ‘Closing the Gap’ policies
Indigenous peoples in Australia and similar colonised countries are subject to racism and systemic socioeconomic disadvantages, resulting in worse health outcomes compared to non‐Indigenous counterparts. Such inequities persist despite governments’ attempts to reduce them. Since 2008, Australian governments have committed to a national ‘Closing the Gap’ (CTG) to reduce inequities in health, education, and employment outcomes between Aboriginal an…
Policy actors' perceptions on applying a SDH approach in child health policy in Australia: A cross‐disciplinary approach (public health and political science)
Research suggests policy action on the social determinants of health (SDH) is required to reduce child health inequities (HE). However, there has been limited action in this area in Australia. Political will has been identified as a barrier but few public health scholars have conducted research which adopts a political science perspective to explore this issue. This study aims to address this gap in the literature. We conducted 27 semi‐structured…
Power and the people's health
The Power of Collaborative Planning: How a Health and Planning Collaboration Facilitated Integration of Health Goals in the 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide
This article examines the relationship between theories of urban governance, strategic planning and collaborative planning and the preparation of a strategic spatial plan for the greater Adelaide region. In particular, it analyses the extent to which health professionals involved in the collaborative processes used to formulate the plan were able to advocate for health-related objectives. The analysis was undertaken using data collected in interv…
Implementing policy on next-generation broadband networks and implications for equity of access to high speed broadband: A case study of Australia's NBN
How well do Australian government urban planning policies respond to the social determinants of health and health equity
Understanding Australian policies on public health using social and political science theories: Reflections from an Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Workshop
There is strong, and growing, evidence documenting health inequities across the world. However, most governments do not prioritize policies to encourage action on the social determinants of health and health equity. Furthermore, despite evidence concerning the benefits of joined-up, intersectoral policy to promote health and health equity, it is rare for such policy approaches to be applied systematically. To examine the usefulness of political a…
Healthy infrastructure: Australian National Broadband Network policy implementation and its importance to health equity
Critical social and economic resources, such as employment, education, and health services, increasingly require online access, highlighting the growing need to address equity of access to high-speed broadband telecommunications. Ensuring access to broadband requires the necessary infrastructure which, in Australia, is the National Broadband Network (NBN). In this paper, we use policy implementation theory to examine the translation of the govern…
Australian policies on water management and climate change: Are they supporting the sustainable development goals and improved health and well-being
BACKGROUND: Sustainable management of the natural environment is essential. Continued environmental degradation will lead to worsened health outcomes in countries and across generations. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a framework for viewing the preservation of natural environments and the promotion of health, well-being and health equity as interconnected pursuits. Within the SDG framework the goals of promoting environmental s…
The health impacts of extractive industry transnational corporations: A study of Rio Tinto in Australia and Southern Africa
BACKGROUND: Operations of transnational corporations (TNCs) affect population health through production methods, shaping social determinants of health, or by influencing regulation of their activities. Research on community exposures to TNC practices and policies has been limited. Our research on extractive industries examined Rio Tinto in Australia and Southern Africa to test methods for assessing the health impacts of corporates in high and mid…
Social Determinants of Indigenous Health and Indigenous Rights in Policy: A Scoping Review and Analysis of Problem Representation
Despite evidence showing the importance of social determinants of Indigenous health and Indigenous rights for health and equity, they are not always recognised within policy. This scoping review identified research on public policy and Indigenous health through a systematic search. Key themes identified included the impact of ongoing colonisation; the central role of government in realising rights; and the difficulties associated with the provisi…
Why behavioural health promotion endures despite its failure to reduce health inequities
Increasing rates of chronic conditions have resulted in governments targeting health behaviour such as smoking, eating high-fat diets, or physical inactivity known to increase risk for these conditions. In the process, many have become preoccupied with disease prevention policies focused excessively and narrowly on behavioural health-promotion strategies. These aim to improve health status by persuading individuals to change their health behaviou…
Power and the people's health
Never mind the logic, give me the numbers: Former Australian health ministers' perspectives on the social determinants of health
Seeing Stars: How the Binary Bias Distorts the Interpretation of Customer Ratings
Across many different contexts, individuals consult customer ratings to inform their purchase decisions. The present studies document a novel phenomenon, dubbed "the binary bias," which plays an important role in how individuals evaluate customer reviews. Our main proposal is that people tend to make a categorical distinction between positive ratings (e.g., 4s and 5s) and negative ratings (e.g., 1s and 2s). However, within those bins, people do n…
To what Extent do Australian Health Policy Documents address Social Determinants of Health and Health Equity
Evidence on social determinants of health and health equity (SDH/HE) is abundant but often not translated into effective policy action by governments. Governments' health policies have continued to privilege medical care and individualised behaviour-change strategies. In the light of these limitations, the 2008 Commission on the Social Determinants of Health called on health agencies to adopt a stewardship role; to take action themselves and enga…
Moving Social Policy from Mental Illness to Public Wellbeing
In the face of global epidemics of mental ill-health, the future of social policy lies with promotion of public wellbeing. This article aims to provide an explanatory rationale and methods for a fundamental shift in social policy; away from a remedial focus on mental ill-health defined in terms of disease or aberrant behaviour and toward a focus on universal access to social conditions favourable to psychological wellbeing. The paper begins with …
Stakeholder perceptions of policy implementation for Indigenous health and cultural safety: A study of Australia's ‘Closing the Gap’ policies
Indigenous peoples in Australia and similar colonised countries are subject to racism and systemic socioeconomic disadvantages, resulting in worse health outcomes compared to non‐Indigenous counterparts. Such inequities persist despite governments’ attempts to reduce them. Since 2008, Australian governments have committed to a national ‘Closing the Gap’ (CTG) to reduce inequities in health, education, and employment outcomes between Aboriginal an…
How well do Australian government urban planning policies respond to the social determinants of health and health equity
Digital Infrastructure as a Determinant of Health Equity: An Australian Case Study of the Implementation of the National Broadband Network
Inequities in access to fast and reliable internet connections, essential for digital access to services and information that are important for health, can exacerbate social inequalities in health. We evaluated the social equity of the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) in Australia based on the type of digital infrastructure delivered to areas of varying socioeconomic status. We found that areas of greater socioeconomic disadvantage…
A qualitative methodological framework to assess uptake of evidence on social determinants of health in health policy
Despite abundant evidence on social determinants of health (SDH) and health inequities, effective uptake of the evidence in health policies of high-income countries has been limited. Health policies might acknowledge evidence on SDH but still direct most strategies towards biomedical and behavioural interventions. This article reports on a framework developed for qualitative analysis of health policy documents to assess how and to what extent pol…
Can health and health equity be advanced by urban planning strategies designed to advance global competitiveness? Lessons from two Australian case studies
How the Social Determinants of Indigenous Health became Policy Reality for Australia's National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan
The paper analyses the policy process which enabled the successful adoption of Australia's National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013-2023 (NATSIHP), which is grounded in an understanding of the Social Determinants of Indigenous Health (SDIH). Ten interviews were conducted with key policy actors directly involved in its development. The theories we used to analyse qualitative data were the Advocacy Coalition Framework, the Mu…
Increased private health fund involvement in Australia's primary health care: Implications for health equity
This study identifies current practices of private health funds ( PHF s) in Australian primary health care ( PHC ), including areas where their involvement is increasing, and examines the risks and benefits of these practices for quality of, and equity of access to PHC . The paper draws on research to investigate equity implications of current PHF involvement in PHC in Australia. We reviewed literature, analysed documents relating to a Senate Com…
Promoting action on structural drivers of health inequity: Principles for policy evaluation
Background: Insufficient progress has been made towards reducing health inequities, due in part to a lack of action on the root causes of health inequities. At present, there is a limited evidence base to guide policy decision making in this space. Key points for discussion: This paper proposes new principles for researchers to conduct health equity policy evaluation. Four key principles are presented: (1) where to evaluate – shifting from famili…
The Off by 100% Bias: The Effects of Percentage Changes Greater than 100% on Magnitude Judgments and Consumer Choice
Percentage changes greater than 100% are frequently used in consumer contexts; for example, a cordless vacuum cleaner may boast '125% longer runtime' compared to competitors. Via six studies (n = 2,395) and 11 supplementary studies (n = 3,249), the current research shows that consumers systematically underestimate the magnitude of percentage changes greater than 100%. Specifically, many consumers apply the relative size usage (e.g., '125% of,' eq…
The Holstein Memoirs, I
The Holstein Papers. Vol. 1: Memoirs and Political Observations
Perceptions of Haart among gay men who declined a treatment offer: Preliminary results from an interview-based study
As part of a prospective study of treatment decision making among people with HIV infection, we explored perceptions of HAART in a cohort who declined a treatment offer. This was a qualitative study in which 26 gay men were interviewed in relation to their views about HAART soon after treatment was recommended by their HIV physician. Fifteen themes were associated with the decision to decline HAART. These were grouped under three broad categories…
The History of the Kings of Britain . Geoffrey of Monmouth, Michael A. Faletra
Health equity and sustainability: Extending the work of the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health
The final report of the World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health presents opportunities to promote synergies between health equity and action on sustainability, including reducing global warming. The report makes important recommendations for political and economic reform, but stops short of calling for major change to the conventional neo-liberal model of economic development and growth. Yet the challenge of global w…
Authority, Interoperability, and Digital Medieval Scholarship
The offline relationships between scholars and institutions have shaped the gateways to publishing, and the nature of the work published. The trust and credibility relationships that are part of those offline academic networks are an essential component of the authenticating strategies that frame both publication and citation, something made increasingly visible through online social networking tools. Although crowd‐sourced projects such as Wikip…
Never mind the logic, give me the numbers: Former Australian health ministers' perspectives on the social determinants of health
Medievalism: Key Critical Terms
Definitions of key words and terms for the study of medievalism. The discipline of medievalism has produced a great deal of scholarship acknowledging the "makers" of the Middle Ages: those who re-discovered the period from 500 to 1500 by engaging with its cultural works, seeking inspiration from them, or fantasizing about them. Yet such approaches - organized by time period, geography, or theme - often lack an overarching critical framework. This…
Social determinants in an Australian urban region: A ‘complexity’ lens
Area-based strategies have been widely employed in efforts to improve population health and take action on social determinants of health (SDH) and health inequities, including in urban areas where many of the social, economic and environmental factors converge to influence health. Increasingly, these factors are recognized as being part of a complex system, where population health outcomes are shaped by multiple, interacting factors operating at …
Dear health minister: Tend the garden but make sure you fence the crocodiles
This paper offers lessons to in-coming health ministers on how they can act to reduce inequities and take action on social determinants. It draws on an interview study of twenty former Australian State, Territory and Federal health ministers about the extent to which they were able to do these things during their tenure. In order to take effective health equity action the health ministers advised: ensure evidence is used to develop a strong party…
Why behavioural health promotion endures despite its failure to reduce health inequities
Increasing rates of chronic conditions have resulted in governments targeting health behaviour such as smoking, eating high-fat diets, or physical inactivity known to increase risk for these conditions. In the process, many have become preoccupied with disease prevention policies focused excessively and narrowly on behavioural health-promotion strategies. These aim to improve health status by persuading individuals to change their health behaviou…
Searching for explanations: How the Internet inflates estimates of internal knowledge.
As the Internet has become a nearly ubiquitous resource for acquiring knowledge about the world, questions have arisen about its potential effects on cognition. Here we show that searching the Internet for explanatory knowledge creates an illusion whereby people mistake access to information for their own personal understanding of the information. Evidence from 9 experiments shows that searching for information online leads to an increase in self…
A qualitative methodological framework to assess uptake of evidence on social determinants of health in health policy
Despite abundant evidence on social determinants of health (SDH) and health inequities, effective uptake of the evidence in health policies of high-income countries has been limited. Health policies might acknowledge evidence on SDH but still direct most strategies towards biomedical and behavioural interventions. This article reports on a framework developed for qualitative analysis of health policy documents to assess how and to what extent pol…
Assessing the health impact of transnational corporations: Its importance and a framework
BACKGROUND: The adverse health and equity impacts of transnational corporations' (TNCs) practices have become central public health concerns as TNCs increasingly dominate global trade and investment and shape national economies. Despite this, methodologies have been lacking with which to study the health equity impacts of individual corporations and thus to inform actions to mitigate or reverse negative and increase positive impacts. METHODS: Thi…
Assessing the ability of swab data to determine the true burden of infection for the amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is a pathogenic fungus which causes the disease chytridiomycosis in amphibians by infecting the animals' epidermis. The most commonly applied method for the detection of Bd is the use of a sterile swab, rubbed over the keratinized areas of an amphibian and then processed to yield DNA for detection by qPCR. This method has been used to infer a threshold of lethal infection in some species; however, how reliable …
The Influence of Social Interaction on Intuitions of Objectivity and Subjectivity
We present experimental evidence that people's modes of social interaction influence their construal of truth. Participants who engaged in cooperative interactions were less inclined to agree that there was an objective truth about that topic than were those who engaged in a competitive interaction. Follow-up experiments ruled out alternative explanations and indicated that the changes in objectivity are explained by argumentative mindsets: When …
To what extent do Australian child and youth health policies address the social determinants of health and health equity: A document analysis study
This research highlights that policy action on the social determinants of child/youth health in Australia is limited and that a more balanced approach to reducing health inequities is needed, moving away from a dominant medical or behavioural approach, to address the structural determinants of child/youth health
To what Extent do Australian Health Policy Documents address Social Determinants of Health and Health Equity
Evidence on social determinants of health and health equity (SDH/HE) is abundant but often not translated into effective policy action by governments. Governments' health policies have continued to privilege medical care and individualised behaviour-change strategies. In the light of these limitations, the 2008 Commission on the Social Determinants of Health called on health agencies to adopt a stewardship role; to take action themselves and enga…
Intersectoral action on SDH and equity in Australian health policy
Intersectoral action between public agencies across policy sectors, and between levels of government, is seen as essential for effective action by governments to address social determinants of health (SDH) and to reduce health inequities. The health sector has been identified as having a crucial stewardship role, to engage other policy sectors in action to address the impacts of their policies on health. This article reports on research to invest…
Assessing the health impact of transnational corporations: A case study on McDonald’s Australia
BACKGROUND: The practices of transnational corporations affect population health through production methods, shaping social determinants of health, or influencing the regulatory structures governing their activities. There has been limited research on community exposures to TNC policies and practices. Our pilot research used McDonald's Australia to test methods for assessing the health impacts of one TNC within Australia. METHODS: We adapted exis…
Digital Infrastructure as a Determinant of Health Equity: An Australian Case Study of the Implementation of the National Broadband Network
Inequities in access to fast and reliable internet connections, essential for digital access to services and information that are important for health, can exacerbate social inequalities in health. We evaluated the social equity of the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) in Australia based on the type of digital infrastructure delivered to areas of varying socioeconomic status. We found that areas of greater socioeconomic disadvantage…
Increased private health fund involvement in Australia's primary health care: Implications for health equity
This study identifies current practices of private health funds ( PHF s) in Australian primary health care ( PHC ), including areas where their involvement is increasing, and examines the risks and benefits of these practices for quality of, and equity of access to PHC . The paper draws on research to investigate equity implications of current PHF involvement in PHC in Australia. We reviewed literature, analysed documents relating to a Senate Com…
Seeing Stars: How the Binary Bias Distorts the Interpretation of Customer Ratings
Across many different contexts, individuals consult customer ratings to inform their purchase decisions. The present studies document a novel phenomenon, dubbed "the binary bias," which plays an important role in how individuals evaluate customer reviews. Our main proposal is that people tend to make a categorical distinction between positive ratings (e.g., 4s and 5s) and negative ratings (e.g., 1s and 2s). However, within those bins, people do n…
Understanding Australian policies on public health using social and political science theories: Reflections from an Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Workshop
There is strong, and growing, evidence documenting health inequities across the world. However, most governments do not prioritize policies to encourage action on the social determinants of health and health equity. Furthermore, despite evidence concerning the benefits of joined-up, intersectoral policy to promote health and health equity, it is rare for such policy approaches to be applied systematically. To examine the usefulness of political a…
Healthy infrastructure: Australian National Broadband Network policy implementation and its importance to health equity
Critical social and economic resources, such as employment, education, and health services, increasingly require online access, highlighting the growing need to address equity of access to high-speed broadband telecommunications. Ensuring access to broadband requires the necessary infrastructure which, in Australia, is the National Broadband Network (NBN). In this paper, we use policy implementation theory to examine the translation of the govern…
Political science (38 works) · Economics (27 works) · Economic growth (26 works) · Health care (24 works) · Social determinants of health (22 works) · Health Policy (21 works) · Medicine (19 works) · Business (18 works) · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology (18 works) · Health disparities and outcomes (16 works)