This background note provides a snap-shot of significant developments in refugee law and policy during the period September 2010 to the end of December 2011. On 14 September 2010, Julia Gillard was re-sworn in as Australia’s 27th Prime Minister following the 21 August 2010 federal election. When the Australian Labor Party (ALP) commenced its second...

Just when it looks like things can’t get any worse for News Corporation, another scandal is engulfing Rupert Murdoch’s $50 billion media empire. This time the Murdoch pay TV businesses are under scrutiny. Allegations aired last week on the BBC and published in the Australian Financial Review suggest that News Corp’s former subsidiary NDS, which...

The Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation (IPAF) undertakes independent research into the attitudes and actions of Australians in relation to the issue of illegal content theft of movies and television shows. The research is undertaken by Sycamore Research; Marketing, an independent market research organisation, in conjunction with Newspoll. IPAF shares the results of this research with...

When sentencing an offender to a period of imprisonment of at least one year, Victorian courts ordinarily fix a non-parole period as part of the sentence. This means that, when the non-parole period expires, the Adult Parole Board has discretion to release the offender into the community to serve the remainder of the sentence on...

As the peak national organisation of the community sector and advocate for low income and disadvantaged people, ACOSS has a long standing interest in minimum wages. We have regularly made submissions on minimum wage fixation to industrial tribunals since the mid 1990s. ACOSS is an interested party with expertise in poverty, employment policy and income...