The considerable debate since 1996 about Commonwealth expenditure on schools has been driven by policy changes that have significantly restructured Commonwealth funding and influenced the relative funding share between the government and non-government schools sectors. In this Research Note Marilyn Harrington briefly explains these policy changes and the trends in Commonwealth funding for schools since...

The last few years have seen a transformation of the scale, characteristics and significance of international population movements. There has been a massive increase in global movement and an increase in the complexity of the types of movement--permanent and temporary, legal and illegal, forced and voluntary. Graeme Hugo argues that much of the thinking and...

Labour hire is an alternative form of employment to the direct employer-employee relationship. Labour hire involves relationships between a principal, an employment agency and the person performing the tasks. While labour hire arrangements have been a feature of the Australian labour market for decades, the relatively recent data now being compiled on this sector suggests...

This is one of a number of Information and Research Services Products being developed to address various facets of the proposed Free Trade Agreement and which will be progressively released over coming weeks. David Richardson looks at how the agreement treats foreign investment.

In the 2003-4 budget, the government proposed changes to the excise (and customs duty) on some fuels. On 16 December 2003, the government announced changes to these proposals. In this research note Richard Webb sets out how the government now proposes to tax certain fuels.