Edited by the Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology

New Research

Growing Up in Australia: 2009 conference presenations

08 February 2010Presentations delivered at the second research conference of Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children are now available online.
Report on government services 2010

Report on government services 2010

01 February 2010Governments spent over $136 billion on the services covered in this year's report, equivalent to around 13 per cent of Australia's national income.

Financial stress, family conflict, and youths' successful transition to adult roles

27 January 2010Overall, financial stress and conflict have independent effects on youths' transitions and youths' perspectives have different consequences to those of their mothers. 
Changing taxes for changing times

Changing taxes for changing times

22 January 2010In this widely reported speech on tax reform, the Treasury head and chair of the Future Tax System Review Panel argues that for tax reform to be successful the community must understand, appreciate and generally support the reasons for change.
Social inclusion in Australia: How Australia is faring

Social inclusion in Australia: How Australia is faring

22 January 2010While most Australians live well, there are some groups who are doing it very tough, according to this report. Approximately 5% of Australians aged 15 years and over experience three or more types of disadvantage.

Estimates of poverty and social exclusion in Australia: a multidimensional approach

19 January 2010This paper compares poverty against measures of social exclusion using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey.

Community

Hey dad! For Indigenous dads, uncles and pops

08 February 2010This article discusses a program written specifically to help Indigenous men to engage with and understand their children.

What future for public housing? A critical analysis

08 February 2010This paper considers the question of the future of State Housing Authority managed public housing and its capacity to address housing need and community sustainability in the 21st century.

10 out of 10 deadly health stories: nutrition and physical activity

08 February 2010The Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council has compiled these stories from NSW Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services to demonstrate the success and potential of these Aboriginal community initiatives.

Welfare

Minimum income benefits in OECD countries

04 February 2010This paper provides an overview of social assistance and other minimum-income programmes in OECD countries, summarises their main features, and highlights a number of current policy challenges.

Reproductive health: findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health

04 February 2010Drawing on a major survey of Australian women conducted over time, this report examines contraception, women’s aspirations for motherhood, reproductive histories, problems with fertility and related treatment and advice-seeking behaviour, maternal health and wellbeing, and participation in the paid workforce.

Commentary

Time for bankruptcy law reform

09 February 2010Australia's bankruptcy laws are out of step with today's credit market place, write Fiona Guthrie and Nicole Rich in On Line Opinion

Welfare quarantining: reversing the burden of truth

06 February 2010The federal government's new quarantining rules won't solve the problem they're designed to address, argues Kemran Mestan

Housing stress undermining super

11 December 2009Allowing borrowers to draw on their super to pay the mortgage is bad policy, write Anitra Nelson, Tony Dalton and Mike Berry

Audio

Indigenous housing: myths and realities

Listen to audio
14 January 2010Paul Pholeros has spent three decades working on indigenous housing. He talks about why housing for Aboriginal Australians is still in such a dire state and what's needed to improve it?

Promises and challenges in developing new vaccines, with a focus on diseases of the developing world

Listen to audio
13 November 2009Learning how to harness the power of the immune system to combat infectious killers has been one of the most dramatic developments in the history of medicine. 

Immigration & refugees

Intergenerational report 2010

01 February 2010In addition to assessing the fiscal and economic challenges of an ageing population, this report also includes a comprehensive discussion on environmental challenges and social sustainability.

The impact of racism upon the health and wellbeing of young Australians 2009

01 February 2010This report explores the attitudes of Australian youth in relation to key issues in contemporary race relations, such as cultural diversity, tolerance and privilege.

Mapping social cohesion 2009: the Scanlon Foundation surveys

01 February 2010This report, the second round of a major longitudinal survey on social cohesion in Australia, provides insights into community attitudes to immigration, multiculturalism and social cohesion, based on findings from national and local surveys.

Video

Change the 'lock em up' mentality

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23 October 2009Ted Wilkes, Chair, National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Committee, speaks about alcohol use in Indigenous Communities and the links between self esteem, substance abuse and incarceration. The Australian Drug Foundation's conference Thinking Drinking 3 held in Brisbane in August 2009, looked at the role of alcohol in entertainment, violence and crime, the night-time economy, marketing, taxation, competition policy, alcogenic environments and more. 9.59 minutes

Alcohol and culture change: Current challenges and conundrums

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16 October 2009Anne Roche, Director, National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction, Flinders University speaks about evidenced based culture change versus intuition and commonsense in the campaign to fight alcohol based social problems.

Families & households

Newborn feeding practices at the time of discharge from hospital in NSW in 2007

08 February 2010This paper describes the pattern of infant feeding at discharge from care after birth and the characteristics of mothers who are at risk of low rates of breastfeeding.

Websites

Community Indicators Victoria

29 October 2009This site uses local community wellbeing indicators to improve citizen engagement, community planning and policy making.

A social health atlas of Australia (Third Edition) 2008

14 May 2009An interactive mapping and statistics site providing Australian demography and socioeconomic status, health status and risk factors. Able to be browsed and searched by country or state/ territory area. Produced by the Public Health Information Development Unit (PHIDU) at The University of Adelaide. 

Gambling - at what cost?

20 April 2009This site contains information for gamblers and their families, friends and associates.  Problem gambling resources can be also be downloaded

Books

Does History Matter? Making and debating citizenship, immigration and refugee policy in Australia and New Zealand

Does History Matter? Making and debating citizenship, immigration and refugee policy in Australia and New Zealand

  • Editors: Klaus Neumann and Gwenda Tavan
  • ANU E Press
Focussing on immigration and citizenship policy in Australia and New Zealand, the contributions to this volume explore how history and memory are implicated in policy making and political debate.

Concepts and methods of youth work: Doing youth work in Australia

  • Edited by Rob White
  • Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies
Recent decades have seen the development and growth of youth work as a recognised and increasingly professionalised occupation in Australia.

Policy Guides

An annually updated guide to privacy legislation from Privacy Victoria.

28-09-09