The first decade of the 21st century proved to be momentous for constitutional reform in the UK and, at times, a period of lively, even torrid, commentary on the law and practice of parliamentary privilege. The purpose of this paper is to identify the key developments in this debate and to consider the main issues...

Aim: To compare estimates of re-offending obtained from two sources, police data on persons of interest proceeded against and court finalisation data. Method: Offenders who were convicted in a NSW Local or Higher Court in 2009 and received a non-custodial penalty were identified. For these offenders, rates of re-offending at 12 and 24 months were...

Introduction: On 18 December 2013, the High Court handed down its decision in Unions NSW v New South Wales. The Court ruled that electoral funding provisions enacted in NSW in 2012 were invalid because they infringed upon the implied freedom of political communication in the Commonwealth Constitution. This e-brief outlines the decision and considers its...

Introduction: This paper presents data from the 2011 Census of Population and Housing for the 93 NSW State Electoral Districts (SEDs) as redistributed in 2013. Figures from the 2006 Census have also been included except for family income. In this case, the statistics are not directly comparable because the income brackets changed between the Censuses...

Introduction: Alcohol-related violence, and in particular violence in and around licensed premises, has been at the forefront of debate in NSW politics in recent years. A number of measures have been introduced over the years to deal with this problem. On 21 January 2014, the NSW Premier, Barry O’Farrell, announced a new package of reforms...