Since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol to that Convention, came into force in 2005, emissions trading has been the preferred approach for any international efforts to control, and eventually reduce, greenhouse gas emissions. Several emission trading schemes are...

The Clean Development Mechanism is an avenue for industrialised countries to undertake carbon abatement projects in developing countries. This Background Note provides information on the CDM and its associated emissions credits. The mechanism is an element of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework...

This paper presents background information on past events and current arrangements for any discussions following the recent release of the report of the review of military superannuation.

The adequacy of Australia’s superannuation savings is a topic of ongoing concern. The common perception is that Australians, in general, have not saved enough for their retirement and that the current level of compulsory superannuation guarantee contributions made by employers on behalf of employees will...

This paper is designed to provide readers with a summary of superannuation taxation, contribution, preservation and payment rules.

Emissions trading gets a lot of bad press. James Hansen, a leading advocate for climate change legislation, has rejected emissions trading altogether in favour of a carbon tax. In an open letter delivered on 29 December 2008 to then President-Elect Obama, Dr Hansen described cap-and-trade...

Soft compulsion is a method to increase retirement savings by automatically increasing the individual employee’s superannuation contributions, but allowing the individual to opt out of this arrangement. It is based on the assumption that individuals, left to their own devices, will often fail to make...

Leslie Nielson provides a simple, easy to use summary of superannuation taxation and preservation rules.

The overall aim of the Australian retirement income system is to reduce poverty in retirement and produce a higher income in retirement than can be achieved by reliance on the age pension alone. Recently, a third goal has begun to emerge, that of prolonging a...

Against the background of declining support for in Australia for greenhouse gas emissions trading, this paper surveys recent emissions trading developments worldwide. The former Rudd Government deferred the proposed emissions trading scheme, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme to at least 2013 due to the slow...