Australia's political parties proved they were not too set in their ways to learn a few new tricks - or at least a few new campaign techniques - for the 2004 federal election on 9 October 2004. With opinion polls predicting a tight race and political commentators alleging that there were large numbers of undecided...

Except for a short period in 2004, the value of the Australian dollar has been rising steadily against the United States dollar for several years. In this research brief - a revision of Research Note 9 of 2000-01 - Greg Baker and Stephen Barber show details of that rise and provide relevant statistical background.

In this research brief Scott Bennett analyses the 55th US presidential election held on 2 November 2004. This report includes a brief examination of key voting groups and post-election challenges to the result.

It complements a previous brief, Domestic Violence in Australia (92), issued by the Parliamentary Library in August 2003, which includes links to interest groups and an overview of Commonwealth government violence against women initiatives and perpetrator programs.

The humanitarian disaster in the Darfur region of Sudan received a great deal of publicity in 2004. In fact it was the result of an exacerbation of political strife going back many years. In this research brief Ravi Tomar provides a background to the conflict and argues that while a resolution is possible, there are...