This paper follows the report of the Royal Commission into the Building Industry. The government has accepted the commission's arguments for the establishment of an Australian Building and Construction Commission with extensive powers. However, there is now a good deal of debate on those recommendations that address reforms in the industry as well as the...

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...

One of the ripples to flow out from the attacks on 11 September 2001 was the requirement for greater security at America's ports. Coming from one of Australia's largest trading partners, the US Container Security Initiative has significant implications for future policy direction, in particular given the Free Trade Agreement currently under consideration between Australia...

The term 'universalism' is currently undergoing a revival in the Australian policy debate. Politicians and commentators from across the political spectrum are using the term in reference to the recently proposed changes to Medicare. Much of the debate focuses on whether Medicare has ever been universal and whether the proposed changes will affect that universality...

This brief provides an overview of the trafficking of women and children into the Australian sex industry in the context of the global trade in people trafficking. It examines why there have been no prosecutions of traffickers under existing Commonwealth laws. It explains how Australia's emphasis on border control is working against the prosecution of...