The role of the Australian Public Service (APS) is to support the Australian Government in responding to economic, social and environmental challenges, through effective policy development and service delivery. It needs to employ the most up-to-date thinking and approaches to deal with increasingly complex issues including demographic pressures, fiscal constraint, and everincreasing expectations of the...

Noise standards adopted by the states and territories for the planning and operation of rural wind farms should include appropriate measures to calculate the impact of low frequency noise and vibrations indoors at impacted dwellings. This is among seven recommendations made in this report on wind farms by Senate Community Affairs References Committee. On 27...

This inquiry is the first major review of the National Classification Scheme since it was introduced over 15 years ago. The inquiry presented the committee with an opportunity to examine a range of important issues relating to the National Classification Scheme and to assess the effectiveness of regulatory regimes for media not included in the...

This inquiry compared two Bills that have the same purpose – to control price signalling in Australian markets. In November 2010, the Hon Bruce Billson MP introduced a Bill to this effect and the Treasurer, the Hon Wayne Swan MP, introduced a government Bill in March 2011. The government Bill followed a consultation process, including...

20 years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, young Aboriginal people are 28 times more likely to be detained than non-indigenous juveniles. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Committee recently tabled this report into Indigenous youth and the criminal justice system. They found that Indigenous social and economic disadvantage have contributed...