The aim of this note is to outline some of the deregulatory issues that have occurred in recent years outside the dominant National Electricity Market (NEM) of New South Wales and Victoria. The NEM comprises New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, Queensland, South Australia and following the completion of the Basslink interconnector, Tasmania. The focus...

In 2002 private health insurance premiums increased by 6.9 per cent, the first increase in premiums since the introduction of a number of incentives designed to increase private health insurance membership and constrain premium increases. In response to the continued growth in premiums the Commonwealth government announced a series of changes in the way private...

This update of a chronology first released in 2000 describes the major changes that have taken place in the Australian Public Service since the 1970s, focusing on changes in the areas of accountability, openness, equity, and efficiency. The chronology is supplemented by tables of parliamentary publications related to the public service.

Claims by the federal government that Australia is potentially at risk of an attack by Hezbollah, a group blamed for a number of terrorist attacks worldwide, have led to the introduction of amendments to the criminal code which would provide a mechanism to proscribe Hezbollah. If passed, Hezbollah will be the first organisation banned in...

This paper follows the report of the Royal Commission into the Building Industry. The government has accepted the commission's arguments for the establishment of an Australian Building and Construction Commission with extensive powers. However, there is now a good deal of debate on those recommendations that address reforms in the industry as well as the...