After months of wrangling, arrangements to deploy over 260 Australian police and officials to Papua New Guinea have finally been made. Helen Hughes argues that Papua New Guinea, in addition to restoring law and order, needs to implement economic reforms to put it on a growth path of 7 per cent a year. This report...

We have grown accustomed to the idea that so-called 'progressive taxation' is 'fair', but a proportional tax system (in which everybody pays the same proportiion of their income in tax) would be much fairer. Sinclair Davidson argues not only that income tax in Australia is high by international standards, but also that higher rate taxpayers...

For too many people it does not pay to work. Higher income earners pay more tax than almost anywhere else in the Western world, and lower and middle income earners face vicious 'effective marginal tax rates', as high income tax is exacerbated by the loss of means-tested family payments. Peter Saunders and Barry Maley argue...

The NSW Law Reform Commission is considering a proposal that all closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance camera footage older than 21 days should be destroyed. They are worried that stockpiling information on people's daily lives and lawful routines violates civil liberties. In this paper Conde argues that this is an over-reaction. Current regulations are adequate...

The Disability Support Pension (DSP) is more generous yet less demanding than unemployment assistance. Few commentators believe that a 117% increase in DSP claimants in 23 years reflects a real increase in disability and incapacity in the working-age population. The author argues that DSP rules need to be tightened to reduce the number of claimants...