Next week Australia holds its census, and so Rear Vision traces the recent history of this ancient institution, to make sense of who counts, and who does the counting. While there have been systems of "enumeration" in place since the Romans, Egyptians and Chinese wanted to keep track of populations and landowners, fighting forces and...

Everything to do with communications in Australia has always been highly political; the National Broadband Network provides the latest evidence. Rear Vision looks at the story of communication in Australia and compares the evolution of the internet here with the rest of the world. Guests Professor Jock Given Senior research fellow, Institute for Social Research...

In Switzerland voters not only elect the government, they also directly vote on policy issues and legislation passed by the parliament. What can Australia learn from Switzerland? Guests Hanspeter KriersiProfessor of Comparative Politics at the University of Zurich Bruno KaufmannPolitical Scientist and Founder and President of the Initiative and Referendum Institute. Wolf LinderPolitical scientist, emeritus...

As more and more refugees arrive in Australian waters by boat, Rear Vision takes a look at the history of Australia's policies on asylum seekers, from the first boatload of Vietnamese back in 1976 through to today. First broadcast 7/4/2010 Guests Mary CrockProfessor of Public Law in the Department of law at the University of...