The 42nd Parliament faces a significant work agenda across a diverse range of public policy issues following Labor?s decisive win at the 2007 election. A change of government inevitably means a change of direction and a significant program of policy development and legislative work. In addition, as with every Parliament, some work will flow from...

For nearly two decades calls have been made to expand the role of midwives within maternity services in Australia. Although some progress has been made, it has been slow and, at system-wide level, limited. There are many barriers that prevent the expansion of midwifery-led services in Australia including funding arrangements for midwifery care, a lack...

The Australian Institute of Health Policy Studies has commissioned this discussion paper to encourage broad community debate and, importantly, action on reform of Australia’s health care system. This report demonstrates that, all too often, existing processes for health system reform are ineffective. It documents the 'unfinished business' on health system reform since 2000.

In 1997, New Zealand, along with many others, made a commitment at the UN General Assembly to produce a national sustainable development strategy (NSDS). In 2002, New Zealand again committed to implement an NSDS by 2005; however, no NSDS was produced. This report describes the actions taken. The key finding of this report is that...

This report seeks to understand how the New Zealand government departments integrate long-term thinking and action. The report analyses 130 strategy documents published from 1990–2007 and outlines how these could be improved. This exercise was repeated in 2015 (see Report 15).