A study of young children’s TV use by the Australian Institute of Family Studies and the University of New England has found that disadvantaged children are watching more television than children in families from higher socio-economic backgrounds.

Media use is often implicated in debates about how young people should use their time for optimal benefit. In the child development literature and in more popular discourses, media use, and particularly television viewing, has long been associated with a number of serious social problems, including the inability to read well and/or concentrate on learning...

The paper examines how the use of child care, the time parents spend with children, and parental wellbeing relate to parental employment. It looks at four themes: the labour force status and job characteristics of parents with young children; patterns of use of child care and how they vary according to parental employment status; the...

In this report, the authors examine the policy relevance and economic significance of the volunteering sector. They present a case for an expanded definition of volunteering, encompassing activities performed outside formal organisations.

In August 2001 the Australian Catholic University announced that its new General Staff Enterprise Bargaining Agreement included a provision for one year's paid maternity leave - 12 weeks on full pay and a further 40 weeks on 60 per cent pay. Denise Thompson Michael Bittman and Peter Saunders assess how that decision helped shape the...