This paper briefly outlines the functions performed by the Auditor-General, the significance of the Auditor-General’s independence, and some possible issues for the new Auditor-General. Executive summary Following the appointment in June 2015 of Mr Grant Hehir to a ten-year term as the Commonwealth’s Auditor-General, this paper briefly outlines the functions performed by the Auditor-General, the...

This guide contains statistics on the number of asylum seekers at Offshore Processing Centres, the number who are children, the number who are found to refugees, and more. Introduction On 8 February 2008, some seven months after Kevin Rudd was sworn in as Prime Minister, the former Labor Government announced that the last remaining asylum...

Provides information about Indigenous Australian federal and state parliamentarians, from the election of the first Indigenous Australian to federal Parliament. Summary This Quick Guide provides information about Indigenous Australian federal and state parliamentarians, from the election of the first Indigenous Australian to federal Parliament—former Senator Sir Neville Bonner—until September 2015. For the purposes of this...

Asylum seeker and refugee policy has attracted a great deal of attention in Australia for many years. In particular, concerns over the unauthorised arrival of asylum seekers by boat have occupied successive governments and parliaments since the 1970s. With increasing levels of global forced displacement, public and political debate on these issues appears likely to...

Overview This quick guide provides statistics on the number of asylum seeker boats that have arrived in Australia since 1976 when the first wave of boats carrying people seeking asylum from the aftermath of the Vietnam War began to arrive. The guide also includes the number of boats that have been ‘turned back’ since the...