In the recent Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Green Paper the Rudd Government emphasised that a major part of its efforts to control global gas emissions would be its participation in international negotiations leading to a global agreement on this issue. Australia is party to the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change...

On 18 August 2008, General Pervez Musharraf resigned as President of Pakistan, the first time in the history of the country that an incumbent president with close ties to the military had opted to resign rather than face the threat of impeachment. This report looks at the events leading up to the resignation and its...

This background paper provides information on Australia's role in the first world war and the evolution of the anniversary observance of the cessation of hostilities.

This chronology summarises regulatory and administrative approaches employed by the federal government to control and monitor research and commercial applications of gene technology from its beginnings until early 2008. In 2008, it became legal for genetically modified canola varieties approved by the Commonwealth’s Office of the Gene Technology Regulator to be grown commercially in Victoria...

Australia’s organ donation and transplantation system does not meet the nation’s present demand for organs and is unlikely to meet its future needs. This is especially so given that the demand for transplanted organs is anticipated to continue to grow with the ageing of Australia’s population and the increased incidence of lifestyle diseases such as...