After the federal election on 7 September 2013, members elected to serve in the House of Representatives and senators representing the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory will be sworn in on the first sitting day of the 44th Parliament. State senators will be sworn in on the first parliamentary sitting day after their...

This report presents adult smoking rates at the local level across Australia. In 2011–12, 2.8 million adults smoked tobacco daily and smoking rates varied across local areas. This report shows that the percentage of adults who smoked daily varied four-fold across local areas, ranging from 6% in Sydney North Shore and Beaches to 28% in...

This paper recounts the story of the 2013 media reforms - their introduction, the hurried investigations which attempted to explore their intentions and possible outcomes, and their eventual demise. Introduction As a result of an investigation into the British media following allegations of corruption, the Australian Government announced in September 2011 that it would instigate...

On 15 October 2013, the Government invited submissions on the exposure drafts of bills to repeal the carbon tax and related legislation. These bills were necessary to ensure that the carbon tax will no longer apply from 1 July 2014. In addition to exposure drafts of the carbon tax repeal bills, the Department of the...

The personal services income (PSI) regime is one of many taxation measures administered by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Australia’s principal revenue collection agency with responsibility for administering Australia’s taxation and superannuation systems. In 2011––12, the ATO collected $301 billion in net revenue from taxpayers, working within a departmental operating budget of $3.4 billion and...