Work/life balance continues to be an issue for many people with only three-out-of-ten people (3.4 million) reporting an improvement in the past five years, according to this report. Introduction Former Prime Minister of Australia John Howard described work/life balance as a "BBQ-stopper" in 2001. Since then, the term "work/life balance" has been part of the...

The shock that property crime can cause is underestimated by most people – burglary victims, in particular, may experience a psychological trauma in addition to the loss of the property itself. Summary Property crime in Australia declined by more than half between 2001 and 2011 – affecting 2.9 per cent of households in 2012, according...

Summary Contrary to public perception, the property crime rate in Australia actually declined between 2001 and 2010. There is a reality gap between declining crime rates and the popular rhetoric of ‘tough on crime’ media stories and political policies. Campaigning in the recent West Australian, New South Wales and Victorian state elections saw both sides...

Recent government approaches to childcare funding have been simple rather than innovative. Improvements in affordability have been short lived, with benefits quickly absorbed through higher costs charged to families. The result is an ongoing game of catch up between government and service providers with families stuck in the middle. Since 2001, the proportion of Australian...

Australians work some of the longest hours in the developed world – substantially longer than their counterparts in Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway. For many Australians though, work stress is related not to the number of hours worked, but a mismatch between the workers’ desired and actual hours of work, and the inflexibility of these...