This paper responds to a call to address the development and building of river-human relationships in the twenty-first century. Many literatures have identified the historical instrumental exploitation of natural resources underpinning urbanisation and the economic development leading to wide-spread degradation of environments including rivers. Clearly such relationships can no longer be considered as appropriate in the twenty-first century. This paper intends to present a conceptual rethink to address the following question: Are there potential approaches by which humans can develop harmonious coexistent relationships with riverine landscapes and associated ecosystems? In answering this question, this paper draws on ideas from new materialism thinking. New materialism offers useful guidance in understanding human-river relationships in which river landscapes are not static backgrounds to the performance of the social. River systems and environments are active participants influencing and shaping social performances through multiple and diverse interconnected and complex human- human relationships and co-productive partnerships. It is concluded that new materialist perspectives provide important guidance for developing harmonious river-human relationships. De-centring the human as the dominant actor in relations with river landscapes and acknowledging rivers as key actors within river-human relationships may enhance the building of harmonious coexistent and mutually beneficial relationships in the twenty-first century. It is further concluded the Nature Futures Framework (NFF) and Human-River Encounter Sites (HRES) frameworks in their capacity to accommodate new materialist thinking provide an opportunity for further exploration and examination of the possibilities for building harmonious coexistent river-human relationships.

Aims: To explore Australian healthcare providers' perspectives on factors that influence disclosure and domestic violence screening through the lens of Heise's (1998) integrated ecological framework.

Design: This paper reports the findings that were part of a sequential mixed methods study with survey data informing interview questions. Participants for interviews were recruited after expressing an interest after completing surveys, as well as via snowball sampling.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were undertaken in 2017 with 12 practicing healthcare providers delivering care to women in the perinatal period in Greater Western Sydney, NSW, Australia. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke's (2006) six-step thematic approach.

Findings: The findings were framed within Heise's integrated ecological framework under four main themes. The main themes were ‘Ontogenic: Factors preventing women from disclosing’; ‘Microsystem: Factors preventing healthcare providers from asking’; ‘Exosystem: Organizational structures not conducive to screening’; and ‘Macrosystem: Cultural attitudes and socioeconomic influences affecting screening’.

Conclusion: Organizational policies are needed for better systems of reminding healthcare providers to enquire for domestic and family violence and mandating this within their practices. Mandatory domestic and family violence education and training that is suitable for the time constraints and learning needs of the healthcare provider is recommended for all healthcare providers caring for perinatal women. Further research is needed in addressing culturally specific barriers for healthcare providers to enquire about domestic and family violence in a culturally appropriate way.

Public and Patient Engagement and Involvement in Research (PPEI): No Patient or Public Contribution was embedded into the research reported in this paper as this research was specifically exploring healthcare providers’ perspectives on domestic violence screening within their own practice experience.

Spatial remoteness in the sense of great distances between population centres and limited access to public services is an on-going problem in Australian local government, where there exist large, sparsely populated regions dominated by the ’tyranny of distance’. From a public policy perspective, it is important to understand the impact of remoteness on local authorities. Accordingly, in this paper, we estimate the relationship between remoteness and financial sustainability using a 2014–2018 sample of Australian local governments. In general, we find only limited empirical evidence for a relationship between geographical remoteness and financial sustainability as we have proxied it.