The ageing of Australia’s population will call for the provision of aged care services to much larger numbers of people over the next few decades. Services will also need to meet the challenges posed by the increasing diversity of older people in terms of their care needs, preferences and affluence. It is clearly important that...

Births in Australia are at an historical high – with around 285 000 babies born in 2007. This corresponds to an estimated total fertility rate of 1.93 babies per woman, the highest since the early 1980s. This is not a one-off event as fertility rates have been generally rising for the last 6 years. Overall...

This report is the Commission’s latest scorecard on the financial performance of 86 government trading enterprises (GTEs). The report also examines the impact on capital management of inadequate compensation for community service obligations and of the persistent poor performance of some GTEs. The 86 GTEs monitored provide services in key sectors of the economy —...

Economy-wide benefits would flow from further reductions in the relatively high tariffs on textile, clothing and footware imports, according to this report. Assistance reductions would involve some further contraction of the TCF sector, but this would be outweighed by expansion of other industries resulting from cost reductions. Consumers and taxpayers would benefit from a reduction...

The rise of part time employment over the past forty years represents a fundamental change in the Australian labour market. Part time employment has become an important component of the range of working arrangements and represents an example of the labour market’s response to economic and social changes. It has been associated with increased diversity...