The Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) covers a number of issues and this paper by David Richardson deals with Chapter 17 on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). It first examines AUSFTA's attempts to entrench or enhance Australia's already strong IPRs. The general economic arguments are examined as well as the Australian and US interests in stronger...

Australian governments for the last ten years or more have tried to reduce the use of the Australian court system by people refused the right to stay in this country. Various methods have been tried by governments of both persuasions - with limited success. In this research note Peter Prince focuses on the key method...

The debate over whether the Australian public wants tax cuts or more spending on social services has been highlighted in the media recently in the wake of new surveys on the tax-spend trade-off and the tax cuts in the Budget. In this research paper Richard Grant looks at the results of major surveys on the...

This research note provides background information on polling methods and highlights potential pitfalls in interpreting results. Such information may be especially useful in what is expected to be an election year, when polls are seen as particularly salient.

This report identifies and briefly describes key Australian data collections relevant to assessing patterns of alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm. The scope of this list is limited to mostly national data collections in the public domain. It includes an analysis of these alcohol data collections and how they contribute to reducing alcohol-related harm.