Child abuse and neglect associated with Indigenous communities cannot be understood, nor addressed, unless it is viewed from a broad perspective which includes both historical and present day issues. Janet Stanley, Adam M. Tomison and Julian Pocock argue that measures centred on community-based responses which empower Indigenous Australians are needed, in order to protect Indigenous...

The Australian government recently announced a parliamentary inquiry to investigate whether a legal presumption of joint residence should become part of Australian family law - that is, if parents separate and cannot agree on arrangements for their children, the starting point should be that children spend equal time with each parent. The AIFS submission to...

Over the last twenty years there has been a substantial increase in the proportion of lone mothers employed part-time, while the proportion employed full-time is much the same in 2002 as it was in 1983. The experience of couple mothers is quite different, with both full-time and part-time employment increasing at similar rates. This paper...

In this paper Wendy Stone, Matthew Gray and Jody Hughes investigate the extent to which an individual's 'stock' of social capital relates to labour force outcomes, over and above more well established determinants. In particular, they examine how family and kinship networks, friends and neighbours relate to individual labour market outcomes, compared with the role...

There have been important changes over the last 25 years in the way in which men and women form partnered relationships. David de Vaus, Lixia Qu and Ruth Weston argue that taking a longer-term perspective provides a better understanding of these trends. Within the last quarter century family structures and relationships have changed in significant...