The focus of this paper is on the legislative and political background to the Crimes Amendment (Aggravated Sexual Assault in Company) Bill 2001. It looks first at the present legal position and the historical background to the relevant provisions in the Crimes Act. The decision in Regina v AEM (jnr) & AEM (snr) & KEM...

This paper examines three areas of election finance law. First, the public funding of election campaigns. Second, the obligation on political parties, candidates and others to disclose the source of donations and third, the regulation of election expenditure: expenditure limits and disclosure of expenditure. The eight Australian jurisdictions represent the diversity in approach to election...

The Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act ) is the main vehicle for planning in NSW. The EP&A Act provides a comprehensive three tier planning scheme, allowing for state, regional and local plans, as well as outlining the development assessment process. Whilst the Act attracted considerable support upon its introduction, nearly twenty years...

It is evident throughout this Paper that national competition policy, and micro-economic reform more generally, have created both winners and losers. One of the major problems is that, whilst the benefits of NCP are generally longer-term and spread more widely amongst the community, the costs of change are often concentrated in a particular area and...

This paper reviews recent allegations of electoral misconduct, especially in the context of pre-selections in the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the Liberal Party, and evaluates the various responses and methods to counteract such behaviour, including electoral and criminal offences, investigative commissions and parliamentary inquiries. The related issue of the autonomy of political parties is...