New Research

Leveraging limited dollars

06 February 2012This paper will help philanthropic executives and trustees explore three innovative strategies to achieve greater results with their limited grant dollars.

The role of assertive outreach in ending 'rough sleeping'

The role of assertive outreach in ending 'rough sleeping'

19 January 2012Drawing on experience of policy-makers, service providers and service users in Brisbane, Sydney and Darwin, this paper suggests that deliberate and strategic attempts to end a person's homelessness can be successful.

What do we know about the private sector's contribution to development?

What do we know about the private sector's contribution to development?

09 January 2012Business is increasingly seen by international aid agencies as a partner in development.

Making health care free for the poor

05 January 2012User fees are widely regarded as one of the main obstacles to increasing poor people’s access to health care in developing countries and, in doing so, promoting more inclusive forms of development.

Wein, Paen, Ya Ang Gim: Victorian Aboriginal experiences of energy and water

Wein, Paen, Ya Ang Gim: Victorian Aboriginal experiences of energy and water

03 January 2012Proposing practical solutions, this report examines the challenges faced by Victorian Aboriginal energy and water consumers.

End the decay: the cost of poor dental health and what should be done about it

End the decay: the cost of poor dental health and what should be done about it

16 December 2011Providing an overview of the economic costs of poor dental health, this study assesses who is bearing those costs and outlines options for reforming the dental health system to provide more accessible care for disadvantaged Australians.

More...

Families & households

Past and present adoptions in Australia

09 February 2012This Facts Sheet provides a summary of the ways in which adoption currently operates, past adoption practices, and the potential impacts adoption has on those involved.

State Trustees Limited: management of represented persons

08 February 2012This audit found that State Trustees is not able to clearly demonstrate that it is fulfilling its obligations to represented persons.

Family violence and Commonwealth laws - improving legal frameworks: final report

08 February 2012This report contains 102 recommendations for law reform to address family violence.

Social inclusion

Teaching with social media in classroom settings: Top ten practices from teachers around Europe

05 February 2012The “Teachers’ competition for social media use in formal language learning contexts” was created within the framework of the EU-funded network “Language learning and social media: 6 key dialogues”.

Service costs in modern residential aged care facilities

31 January 2012This paper presents the results of a national study of the cost of delivering residential aged care services in modern and efficient facilities.

Commentary

Designing better lives: An economist’s appreciation of design

21 December 2011Using design principles for social service delivery has produced old fashioned innovation, writes Nicholas Gruen

Meet Australia's 99 Per Cent

19 October 2011It wasn't only the usual suspects who turned out when Adam Brereton went to the Occupy protests in Sydney and Melbourne over the weekend. Here's his take on who is showing up - and why, for New Matilda.

Are the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer?

29 September 2011Wealth seems to be more equally distributed than income in Australia, writes Peter Whiteford in Inside Story, but interpreting the data can be complex

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.

Homelessness

  • Public Policy Institute - Australian Catholic University

12 December 2011Despite numerous reports, reviews and initiatives over many years, homelessness remains a policy issue in search of a solution.

Equity and education

  • Public Policy Institute - Australian Catholic University

12 December 2011In the international testing stakes, Australian school students are mostly high achievers. However, there is a significant equity problem in education.

Audio

Communication, access and equality

Listen to audio
08 December 2011This program looks at number of projects aiming to improve access to communication - be it the use of telephones in East Timor or Internet access in the remote interior of Australia.

NSW Family and Community Services: From managing disadvantage to breaking it

Listen to audio
31 October 2011New South Wales Minister for Community Services and Women, Pru Goward speaks about managing and breaking disadvantage.

Immigration & refugees

Inclusive education for students with refugee experience: whole school reform in a South Australian primary school

25 January 2012In recent years, there has been an increase in students with refugee experience in the UK, the US, Europe and Australia.

Immigration detention in Australia

23 January 2012The policy of mandatory detention in Australia (that is the legal requirement to detain all non-citizens without a valid visa) was introduced by the Keating (Labor) Government in 1992 in response to a wave of Indochinese boat arrivals.

Australian Government spending on irregular maritime arrivals and counter-people smuggling activity

23 January 2012There has been much discussion in both the media and political debate in recent times about the substantial and rising costs to the Australian Government of intercepting, detaining and processing asylum seekers arriving by boat.

Video

Social entrepreneurship - the revolution matures

Listen to audio
09 December 2011The discourse around social entrepreneurship continues at a pace: more international conferences, research interest, journals and university courses are some of the identifiers.

Innovative Indigenous policy

Listen to audio
04 November 2011Professor Ian Anderson, Foundation Chair in Indigenous Health at the University of Melbourne, comments on some of the countries most pervasive issues of Indigenous inequality and disadvantage.

Youth

Juvenile detention population in Australia 2011

09 February 2012This report presents information on the number of young people in detention in 2011 and describes recent trends in the detention population.

Early childhood, education and training; justice; emergency management

08 February 2012Volume one of the report focuses on early childhood, education and training as well as justice and emergency management sectors.

Websites

Development Policy Blog

03 January 2012Providing a platform for the best in aid and development analysis, The Development Policy blog focuses on Australia, the Pacific and Asia.

Social exclusion monitor

09 September 2011 More than one million Australians experience deep social exclusion according to the social exclusion monitor, a new approach to measuring social exclusion in Australia. 

Australian Social Policy Association (ASPA)

18 July 2011Established to promote debate and to increase understanding of social policy in Australia, the ASPA enables productive collaborations between those working and researching in social policy locally, across the Asia-Pacific region and internationally.

Most viewed: This week

1
Teaching with social media in classroom settings: Top ten practices from teachers around Europe
2
The experience of education: The impacts of high stakes testing on school students and their families
3
Juvenile detention population in Australia 2011
4
Past and present adoptions in Australia
5
Can nations measure well-being?

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
Digital futures for cultural and media studies

Digital futures for cultural and media studies

  • John Hartley
  • Wiley-Blackwell
As they play with their digital devices and online games, children may unknowingly be making up the kind of democracy we will have tomorrow.

Noticeboard

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.

Topics

APO