Based on data from the 2001 Census, more than one in ten Australian homebuyers are experiencing 'mortgage stress', defined in this Research Note as a situation in which homebuyers are paying 35 per cent or more of their income on home loan repayments. While it is acknowledged that not all households paying 35 per cent...

Aren't all children born in Australia, 'Australian'? Not necessarily. Until 1986 every child born in this country automatically became an Australian citizen at birth - no matter who the parents were. Only children of foreign diplomats and 'enemy aliens' did not become Australian citizens. The Citizenship Act was amended in 1986 to remove automatic citizenship...

The Commonwealth first became involved with funding child care in a substantial way in 1972; in that year the it provided funding ($6.5 million in the first year) for non-profit organisations to operate centre-based day care facilities for children of working and sick parents. Since that time Commonwealth involvement and funding for child care has...

The recent decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia to increase interest rates following seventeen months of unchanged, historically low rates has generated interest in the impact of this decision on the approximately 32 per cent of Australian households with mortgages. It has also prompted speculation about further rate rises in the next few months.

In the pre-election environment of 2001, the Australian government introduced legislative changes allowing some of Australia's territory to be excised from the migration zone in order to discourage non-citizens from arriving unlawfully in Australia by boat. People attempting to do so since then have been intercepted at sea, where possible, and either returned to Indonesia...