This paper provides Members of the 57th Parliament of New South Wales with an authoritative overview of 45 key issues affecting the state in 2019. It presents the latest evidence on key areas for the NSW community such as health, education, crime and justice, housing, environment, social issues and political issues.

There are two broad types of appropriation mechanism: annual appropriations, which are the subject of the Appropriation Acts tabled on Budget night and special appropriations, which are found in other legislation. This guide explains further.

In November 2015, the Canadian government, led by Justin Trudeau, announced a new, nonpartisan process to select candidates for Senate appointments. To take stock of these developments and related internal changes, the IRPP convened a round table in Ottawa on September 27, 2018. This report summarizes the presentations and discussion at that event.

This Inquiry reviewed current international practice regarding petitions in parliament, recommending reforms to streamline the process locally and encourage more Australian residents to submit petitions.

This quick guide contains the most recent tables showing the composition of Australian parliaments by party and gender (see Table 1 and Table 2 below). It takes into account changes to the Commonwealth, New South Wales, Victorian and South Australian parliaments since the last update was published in October 2018.