Key points This paper provides a brief overview of the party and gender composition of the 45th Parliament of Australia. A double dissolution election was held on 2 July 2016 whereby all seats in the House of Representatives andSenate were up for election. All seats in both Chambers were declared by the Australian ElectoralCommission prior...

This paper examines the potential for e-petitions to enhance the political engagement function of petitioning and assesses the procedural and technical requirements that have to be taken into account in planning an e-petition system.

Executive overview Australians have been let down by their political leaders, other members of parliament (MPs) and by the federal parliamentary committee system. This harsh assessment is the result of research into political donations laws in this country. In 2008, a 99-page Electoral Reform Green Paper: Donations, Funding and Expenditure was circulated by the then...

As the election campaign gets under way, a visiting political scientist reflects on four sometimes-surprising months in the national capital One of my first and strongest impressions of the differences between Canadian and Australian politics came, of all places, in the parliamentary gift shop in Canberra. As one of the small but hearty group of...

This paper explores the international shift away from social democracy in the late 1970s through the modern 'growth as consumption' economic mindset that has resulted in intense individualism, and a collapse of socially and environmentally attuned policy-making.