Over the past week Canberra has fiddled while the world burns, writes Geoffrey Barker on our partner website, INSIDE STORY.

This paper argues that, irrespective of the statutory framework, native title claims are best and most expeditiously resolved by negotiation and consent when the National Native Title Tribunal and the Federal Court work cooperatively and in a complementary fashion. The case of the negotiation and resolution by consent of the Thalanyji claim is used to...

This paper considers the constitutional and practical constraints upon reforming electoral campaign funding in Australia. It addresses the banning or capping of political donations, the limiting of campaign expenditure and the expansion of public funding of political parties. In doing so, it draws on the experience of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New...

THEIR LORDSHIPS and Honourable Members were pleased last week to host the Queen at the Palace of Westminster, where she dutifully delivered the Speech from the Throne to open the new session of parliament. Many of them were decidedly less pleased a week earlier to learn that members of the Metropolitan Police had also paid...

As leader of the opposition before the 2007 election, and now as prime minister, Kevin Rudd promised that a constitutional referendum to introduce fixed House terms would be held on the same day as the next Commonwealth election. The fact that Australian prime ministers have the power to call an election before the expiry of...