The rules on the admittance of visitors or ‘strangers’ within the parliamentary chambers have a long history in the Westminster tradition of parliamentary practice. Over the past 30 years there has been a dramatic increase in the representation of women in Parliament and some of them have given birth while in office. In response to...

Between 1922 and 1967 about 150,000 children with an average age of eight years and nine months were shipped from Great Britain to help populate the British Dominions of Canada, Rhodesia, New Zealand and Australia with ‘good white stock’. Estimates of the number of children sent to Australia vary from 3000 to 10,000, most of...

Since taking office in December 2007, the Rudd Government has made social inclusion a key theme in its approach to social policy. This paper suggests that the concept of social inclusion lacks a clear definition and coherent theoretical core. The term social inclusion is conceptually problematic in that it limits its scope to threshold issues...

Burma’s military government dominates the country’s politics and its economy. It has continued to repress political opponents (including Aung San Suu Kyi) and its record in economic development and human rights is considered widely to be poor. While a number of Western governments have condemned the Burma regime’s policies, its relations with neighbouring countries (most...

In one of his first acts as Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon. Kevin Rudd MP ratified the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 2007. [1] Under this international agreement, Australia is committed to maintaining its national greenhouse gas emissions at (or below) 108 per cent of...