These papers are a follow-up to a roundtable that reviewed the Australian tax system, the Henry Review recommendations and the extent of their implementation, and last year's Tax Summit at Parliament House. In October 2011 the Academy, in partnership with the ANU and the Australia New Zealand School of Government, convened a roundtable event examining...

Tim Lang proposes that a set of 'New Fundamentals' are now clear yet policy-makers have so far failed to get sufficient intellectual, political and economic grip on the seriousness of the situation. For a moment, in 2006-08, this looked possible. Rising oil and food commodity prices shocked even Western policy-makers. They were used to food...

Australia currently lacks a mechanism to gather evidence on the formation of public attitudes to the introduction of new technologies, particularly the formation of attitudes to nuclear energy technology. This is a limiting factor in achieving informed debate in the development of a national energy policy. These are key findings in a research project recently...

This paper provides background material on governance issues in the Australian health care system, an overview of health care financing issues in an international context, a summary of the discussions and views expressed at a recent Academy roundtable, and commentary on the recommendations of the Health and Hospitals Reform Commission. Public hospitals and their performance...

Since the 1960s we have experienced major changes in the way people live and the way in which they build their families and households. This paper looks at the characteristics of people who live alone.