Calls have intensified in recent years for Australia to introduce a seasonal guest-worker program of unskilled or low-skilled workers from the Pacific region. Adrienne Millbank surveys the main arguments.

Australia has implemented FTAs with the United States and New Zealand; is currently negotiating an FTA with China; and has recently completed a joint FTA feasibility study with Japan – in other words, with each of its top five export destinations, except South Korea. Jeffrey Robertson looks at the domestic political impediments in South Korea...

In this e-Brief Roy Jordan provides background on the history of sedition as a Commonwealth criminal offence. Some examples of past sedition prosecutions are given. Proposals for reform in the early 1990s are outlined as well as the controversial amendments which were made during 2005. On 2 March 2006, the attorney-general announced a review of...

Martin Lumb and Scott Bennett provide an overview of the war service record of Australian parliamentarians since federation.

Since the mid-1990s, the government has made important changes to excises, and has proposed major changes to the excise on fuels. Richard Webb examines and analyses these changes.