The competition for diplomatic recognition between China and Taiwan is destabilising Island states in the South Pacific, making Pacific politics more corrupt and violent. The Solomon Islands provides the clearest evidence of what happens when an island state becomes a battleground in this contest. Australia is in the front line in the South Pacific. Australia...

Colin A Hughes, Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of Queensland, looks at the history of the study of campaign finance in Australia and why it has been so under-developed. in 2006 campaign finance has been a regular feature in the media. This is partly because of recent amendments to the Commonwealth Electoral...

Elisa Arcioni considers the decision to include seats for the Italian diaspora in the Italian parliament. The decision was of even greater significance since it was the results in the Australasian seat that gave the Prodi government its majority in the Senate.

This project focuses on the ways in which communities find things that, at the local level, provide support to people with a mental illness. In understanding this, the project explored how communities are resilient and how resilience can be further developed. The project focused on regional and rural communities. The paucity of mental health services...

This publication presents a summary of results from a national survey of students who undertook vocational education and training (VET) at technical and further education (TAFE) institutes or other government, private or community education providers during 2005. It reports on students' characteristics, employment outcomes and satisfaction with, and benefits from, the training.