Sharon Beder takes a look at the increasing use of 'strategic lawsuits against public participation', or SLAPPs, by corporations against individual citizens and groups for exercising their democratic rights.

Norm Kelly, a former Member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia and a soon to be member of the Political Science Program at the Australian National University, takes a look at the advantages that follow when minor parties achieve parliamentary party status.

Robin Tennant-Wood explores the 'symbiotic relationship' between Australia's political parties and the Australian media, focusing on the media's sometimes reluctant scrutiny of party funding.

Peter Brent looks at above-the-line Senate ticket voting and the practice of 'preference swapping', which proved controversial at the 9 October election, and asks: how can we justify these practices in terms of democratic values and respect for the preferences of voters? He sheds some light on how a party with only 1.9 per cent...

Peter Andren, the independent federal member for Calare, attacks the excesses of parliamentary 'entitlements' employed in the pursuit of re-election. 'We have a system,' he writes, 'that delivers all representatives incredible privileges and power through incumbency.'