Responsibility for implementing workers‘ compensation schemes and workplace health and safety in Australia has traditionally resided with state and territory governments. This paper chronicles the growing role of the Commonwealth.

It is undeniable that minerals and energy resource development is a key contributor to the Australian economy, and in particular to the state of Western Australia. The recent 'mining boom' has been much discussed in the last 7 years or so and has brought considerable revenue to state and federal governments. As well as being...

This background note details the approach taken in Australia and some overseas parliaments to codes of conduct for ministers and members of parliament, registers of interests, the post-separation employment of ministers and the use of ethics commissioners in providing advice on and/or conducting investigations into breaches of codes.

This brief looks at the location, environment, geology and mineral resource of the Yeelirrie deposit and summarises its political history since discovery in 1972. The brief then examines some of the environmental, social and economic issues surrounding this project. The Yeelirrie uranium deposit was discovered in 1972 by Western Mining Corporation Ltd (WMC) in remote...

• In June 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that Australia would seek to encourage development of an ‘Asia Pacific Community’ by 2020. He argued that no existing cooperation forum so far brings together the whole Asia Pacific region and it was therefore desirable to review the region’s ‘architecture’. This paper surveys the background to...