New Research

Compulsory voting: what choices matter?

23 August 2011Compulsory voting keeps our voting turnout levels at the highest in the world in a period when voting is in decline throughout the rest of the industrialized world.

Economic regulation of airport services

Economic regulation of airport services

22 August 2011The Productivity Commission's report on whether or not airport services need further economic regulation.

The direct costs of waiting for direct action

22 August 2011This paper examines the Coalition's 'Direct Action' plan for reducing carbon emissions. 

National security note: The politics of US foreign policy

22 August 2011This report details the foreign policy views of Republican Presidential candidates.

National partnership agreement on essential vaccines: Performance report for April 2009 – March 2010

22 August 2011This report assesses the performance of all States and Territories against four benchmarks based on maintaining, and, where posssible, improving immunisation coverage rates.

Implementing the Australian business excellence framework: eight local government case studies

Implementing the Australian business excellence framework: eight local government case studies

22 August 2011This report profiles eight local councils using the Business Excellence Framework as an integrated leadership and managment system that describes the elements essential to sustainable organisational excellence.

Internet access in public libraries survey 2011

22 August 2011This report is the fifth in a series which together provide the most comprehensive indication of how public library internet services have been managed, delivered and used throughout Australia over the past decade.

Family violence and Commonwealth laws - Immigration

22 August 2011This Issues Paper deals with the treament of family violence in Commonwealth immigration law.

Australian vocational education and training statistics: apprentices and trainees 2011 - March quarter

22 August 2011In total, there were 458,900 apprentices and trainees in-training as at the end of March 2011, an increase of 5.3% from the previous year.

Australia's next Defence White Paper

22 August 2011In an address to the Global Forces 2011 Conference, Major General (Retd) Peter Abigail discusses questions to be considered for Australia's next Defence White Paper and the issues identified with the 2009 Defence White Paper.

Australian community sector survey 2011

22 August 2011A total of 745 agencies completed the survey, responding on issues relating to service provision, income and expenditure, operational, policy, and workforce issues for the community services sector.

The role of technology in engaging disengaged youth

22 August 2011This research analysis the ways through which young and disadvantaged Vocational and Education and Training students can be engaged through new information and communications technologies.

Which paths work for young people?

Which paths work for young people?

22 August 2011This paper documents the transition of young people from high school to professional work, via tertiary study or vocational training and apprenticeships.

Fault, gender politics and family law reform

22 August 2011Recent public debates about family law reform have revealed both support for and criticism of legislative policies that seek to shape social norms, including gendered tensions that characterise modern reform debates.

Chinese macroeconomic management through the crisis and beyond

  • Jessica Xu, Jessica Brown, Adam McKissack
  • Treasury

22 August 2011This paper examines the success of China's stimulus spending during the global financial crisis and the changes that need to be made for future economic prosperity. 

The relationship between transport and disadvantage in Australia

The relationship between transport and disadvantage in Australia

22 August 2011This resource sheet provides information about how transport and disadvantage intersect and why some groups are especially vulnerable to transport disadvantage.

RDA Sydney metropolitan region economic baseline assessment - update

RDA Sydney metropolitan region economic baseline assessment - update

19 August 2011Based on new economic data and information, this report updates a 2010 economic overview for Regional Development Australia's Sydney Region - including 41 individual local government areas. 

Medical labour force 2009

19 August 2011The supply of employed medical practitioners increased between 2005 and 2009, from 323 to 350 full-time equivalent practitioners per 100,000 population, based on a 40-hour week.

National cultural policy - discussion paper

National cultural policy - discussion paper

19 August 2011Outlining goals and strategies, and inviting submissions from the arts sector and the public, this discussion paper is a step towards the development of a new Australian national cultural policy.  

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Commentary

The political consequences of Australia's resources boom

23 August 2011Australia seems strangely unaffected by the recent market crashes, but a closer inspection suggests that it is unlikely to be sustained, says Shahar Hameiri and Toby Carroll on The Drum.

The life of the mind

22 August 2011“Don’t tell me you’re going to spend your life looking for the soul?” Brett Evans meets the philosopher David Chalmers

Never so good?

22 August 2011On the anniversary of the 2010 Australian election, Frank Bongiorno – just back from London – contrasts the challenges facing Britain and Australia in Inside Story

More...

Topic Guides

NBN: Guide for Consumers

  • Australian Communications Consumer Action Network & Internet Society Australia

09 June 2011The Internet Society of Australia (ISOC-AU) and the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), have developed NBN: A Guide for Consumers, designed to offer all Australians information about the National Broadband Network.

Mechanisms for advancing women's human rights:

  • Australian Human Rights Commission

22 August 2011Aiming to assist women who have experienced human rights violations, and been failed by processes in Australia, this guide can be used to seek redress from international complaint mechanisms.

The clean energy plan

  • Clean Energy Future

11 July 2011Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan, and Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Greg Combet announced the Australian Government’s comprehensive plan for tackling climate change, ‘Securing a clean energy future’.

Audio

Boardroom battles over women directors

Listen to audio
22 August 2011There's some good news on the horizon for female company directors: women make up almost a third of new appointments to Australian boards.

Rating games; suing for privacy

Listen to audio
22 August 2011It's taken a decade of debate, but Australia's states and territories have finally reached an agreement on a new, adult rating for some video games: R18+.

Video

Australia's long-term challenges - Julia Gillard

Listen to audio
12 August 2011At the inaugural Per Capita Reform Agenda series, Prime Minister Julia Gillard addresses Australia's long-term economic outlook and the challenges that lie ahead. Following her speech, she talks with David Hetherington about China's role in our economic future, the mining boom, our demographic forecasts, the problems posed by climate change and the currently unstable global markets.

Beyond the box office: understanding audiences in a multi-screen world

Listen to audio
10 August 2011Full presentations from an industry forum held to discuss Screen Australia's research into the size and shape of Australian screen audiences.

Websites

Human Security Gateway

18 August 2011The Human Security Gateway is a rapidly expanding searchable online database of human security-related resources including reports, journal articles, news items and fact sheets. It is designed to make human security-related research more accessible to the policy and research communities, the media, educators and the interested public.

Where is the Art?

10 August 2011Where is the Art? (WITA) is an online visual arts directory dedicated to locating artists, art galleries & exhibition spaces, art suppliers and art exhibitions in the Orana and Central West regions of NSW.

Census of Population and Housing

04 August 2011This is the official website for matters concerning the 9 August 2011 Census of Population and Housing in Australia.

Latest commentary

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The impact of domestic violence on children: a literature review

Noticeboard

Research on Workplace Giving - Employers invited to participate
17 August 2011

CSI (www.csi.edu.au) is conducting research on workplace giving in collaboration with the Australian Charities Fund and United Way.

We are interested in:

1) organisations with workplace giving programs to assess drivers and barriers of successful workplace giving programs

2) organisations without  workplace giving programs, to assess perceived benefits and barriers to implementing a workplace giving program

Cultivating arts and disability
08 August 2011

Cultivate is a new professional development fund for Australian artists with disability. Cultivate will provide seed funding to artists who want to further develop their professional artistic practice with the aim of being better placed to pursue a professional artistic career and to compete for funding in general arts funding programs.

Grants of up to $8,000 are available for the costs associated with developing your professional practice as an artist. This could include specific skills or professional development opportunities including mentoring.

Tell the world about your broadband service
02 August 2011

The global organisation representing consumer groups, Consumers International, is asking Australians to be part of their project aimed at holding internet service providers to account. You can help by taking part in the 10-minute online survey to see how Australia compares to the rest of the world for broadband services.

Books

Speechwriting for government in Australia

Speechwriting for government in Australia

  • James Groves
  • James Groves & Associates
"...an indispensible book...excellent practical guide to the art of effective oral communication" from the Foreword by Malcolm Hazell CVO AM, former Official Secretary to the Governor-General
Social ecology: Applying ecological understanding to our lives and our planet

Social ecology: Applying ecological understanding to our lives and our planet

  • David Wright, Catherine Camden-Pratt and Stuart Hill
  • Hawthorn Press
Social Ecology addresses the burning question of how to apply ecological understanding to every aspect of our lives. It provides a holistic framework for change, based on the interrelationships between the personal, social, environmental and 'spiritual'.

Topic Guides

NBN: Guide for Consumers

  • Australian Communications Consumer Action Network & Internet Society Australia

09 June 2011The Internet Society of Australia (ISOC-AU) and the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), have developed NBN: A Guide for Consumers, designed to offer all Australians information about the National Broadband Network.

Mechanisms for advancing women's human rights:

  • Australian Human Rights Commission

22 August 2011Aiming to assist women who have experienced human rights violations, and been failed by processes in Australia, this guide can be used to seek redress from international complaint mechanisms.

The clean energy plan

  • Clean Energy Future

11 July 2011Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan, and Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Greg Combet announced the Australian Government’s comprehensive plan for tackling climate change, ‘Securing a clean energy future’.

Topics

APO