In July 2003, the federal government released an exposure draft of legislation (Charities Bill 2003) which seeks to redefine what constitutes a charitable organisation. It also asked the Board of Taxation to conduct a public enquiry to determine the criteria for organisations to be given charitable status. This Current Issues Brief explains the background to...

Tony Kryger provides an analysis of certain labour force characteristics of families from the 2001 Census of Population and Housing for Commonwealth Electoral Divisions. It seeks to measure the extent of labour market disadvantage experienced by families by providing a basis on which to make comparisons between electorates. Data for each labour force characteristic are...

The Australian Army is in the process of acquiring a new main battle tank (MBT). This acquisition is contrary to the policy announced in the 2000 defence white paper when the government said it had 'decided against the development of heavy armoured forces suitable for contributions to coalition forces in high intensity conflicts'.

Based on data from the 2001 Census, more than one in ten Australian homebuyers are experiencing 'mortgage stress', defined in this Research Note as a situation in which homebuyers are paying 35 per cent or more of their income on home loan repayments. While it is acknowledged that not all households paying 35 per cent...

Aren't all children born in Australia, 'Australian'? Not necessarily. Until 1986 every child born in this country automatically became an Australian citizen at birth - no matter who the parents were. Only children of foreign diplomats and 'enemy aliens' did not become Australian citizens. The Citizenship Act was amended in 1986 to remove automatic citizenship...