The major companies in the HIH Insurance Group (HIH) were placed in provisional liquidation on 15 March 2001. The losses and hardship inflicted on the Australian community by this corporate failure have been significant and have been a major contributing factor to the current insurance crisis. The liquidation process could take up to ten years...

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has highlighted the potentially severe threat posed by infectious diseases to modern economies. This Research Note surveys the evidence.

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...

In many ways the election was a re-run of the election held in Victoria just 16 weeks before. A Labor government's popularity had remained solid since the previous election: a popular, but policy-cautious premier retained a high degree of community support; the Liberal Party had undermined, then replaced, its leader relatively late in the parliamentary...

The first step has been taken towards a resolution of the North Korean nuclear crisis. But the 23-25 April trilateral negotiations held in Beijing, involving the United States, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and China may have raised as many questions as provided answers. This Research Note summarises the major issues.