This issues paper looks at alternative market-based mechanisms that could be used to diversify the federal government's water purchase program and secure access to the suite of entitlements necessary to restore balance to the use of the resource. The Restoring the Balance in the Murray-Darling Basin program currently uses an open tender process as the...

The literacy debate rarely addresses the critical social and historical factors that also account for why literacy levels among remote Indigenous youth are lower than their mainstream counterparts. The focus on schooling obscures the less obvious fact that we must also be cognisant of the broader sociocultural factors associated with literacy acquisition, maintenance and transmission...

This report warns that as a result of climate change, disasters are likely to become larger, more complex, occur simultaneously and in regions that have either not experienced the natural hazard previously or at the same intensity or frequency. The report recommends that emergency services will need to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the impact...

In 2007-08, there were over 36,000 dwellings specifically targeted to providing housing assistance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples - an increase of almost 1,000 dwellings since 2005-06. A further 58,000 Indigenous households were receiving assistance through mainstream housing programs in the same period.

This paper briefly places the contribution of mining into the context of the wider economy, and focuses on the impact of coal mining on both natural and agricultural areas of NSW. The minerals industry is NSW’s largest export industry, accounting for export revenue of $11.1 billion in 2006-07, which is 39% of total NSW exports...