Advancing the National Interest is the government’s - and Australia’s - second foreign and trade policy White Paper. It is a comprehensive assessment of Australia’s place in the world and articulation of the government’s strategies to protect and promote the security and prosperity of Australia and our people. This White Paper continues the government’s commitment...

This paper analyses the growth in numbers of ministerial staff and discusses the accountability of staffers, particularly their accountability to Parliament, in an historical perspective. It also looks at the regulation (or lack of regulation) of the people who work for the government of the day.

This Research Note considers the international instruments dealing with free speech and notes the lack of an express legislative basis for freedom of speech either in the Constitution or in other legislation. Decisions of the High Court which have found an implied freedom of political expression are outlined. Attempts to legislate for freedom of speech...

Ministers hold positions of power and influence. Some of the knowledge they acquire might be of a confidential nature, or could confer on them advantages if subsequently, as private citizens, they were to work in an area related to their former responsibilities. This Research Note examines Australian and overseas examples of the regulation of post-separation...

When may half-Senate elections be held? This Research Note suggests that Prime Ministers do not have as much freedom in this matter as public discussion would tend to suggest.