In 2002 private health insurance premiums increased by 6.9 per cent, the first increase in premiums since the introduction of a number of incentives designed to increase private health insurance membership and constrain premium increases. In response to the continued growth in premiums the Commonwealth government announced a series of changes in the way private...

This update of a chronology first released in 2000 describes the major changes that have taken place in the Australian Public Service since the 1970s, focusing on changes in the areas of accountability, openness, equity, and efficiency. The chronology is supplemented by tables of parliamentary publications related to the public service.

Claims by the federal government that Australia is potentially at risk of an attack by Hezbollah, a group blamed for a number of terrorist attacks worldwide, have led to the introduction of amendments to the criminal code which would provide a mechanism to proscribe Hezbollah. If passed, Hezbollah will be the first organisation banned in...

Australia's peak indigenous body, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), has been the focus of a great deal of media, political and public attention in recent months largely as a result of the changes to ATSIC announced by the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Philip Ruddock, in April, and the broader review of ATSIC...

This paper examines the $30 billion in Commonwealth tax expenditures which provide tax benefits through deductions, rebates, reduced rates and deferred liabilities. While essentially the same as outlays, tax expenditures are not subject to the same scrutiny but provide the cosmetic effect of a slimmer public sector with lower outlays and taxation receipts.