About this report Background to National Agreement reporting In November 2008, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) endorsed a new Intergovernmental Agreement on Federal Financial Relations (IGA) (COAG 2009a). The Ministerial Council for Federal Financial Relations has general oversight of the operations of the IGA [para. A4(a)]. The IGA included six new National Agreements (NAs):

Stronger harm minimisation measures are needed, mainly aimed at 'pokies', including lowering the intensity of play and the capacity for gamblers to set spending limits on themselves, according to this report. Gamblers in Australia spend (lose) over $18 billion per year including nearly $12 billion on poker machines. The Commission estimates that problem gamblers account...

Reforms are needed to improve the accountability of boards, remove conflicts of interest and enhance shareholder engagement on remuneration, according to this draft report. On the evidence, says the Commission, the strong growth in executive pay has had much to do with the growth and global reach of Australian companies themselves. But there have also...

This supplement to the July 2009 report Restrictions on the Parallel Importation of Books addresses matters raised in a recent paper commissioned by the Australian Publishers Association.

This issues paper looks at alternative market-based mechanisms that could be used to diversify the federal government's water purchase program and secure access to the suite of entitlements necessary to restore balance to the use of the resource. The Restoring the Balance in the Murray-Darling Basin program currently uses an open tender process as the...