Unpublished ABS data shows that 23,000 Australian children from low and middle income families are being priced out of child care:12,000 children from low income families and 11,000 children from middle income families miss out on child care because of cost, and they are more likely to experience developmental disabilities as a result.

Deferred Happiness Syndrome affects 30% of Australians and occurs when employees are not satisfied with work but do it to achieve happiness later on, often through money and material interests. This often results in downshifters that voluntarily reduce working hours to ensure better lifestyles.

Examines the benefits that an ageing population will bring to many areas of Australian life and concludes that there is a silver lining to the fog of pessimism currently clouding the perceptions of policy makers and governments.

Examines the perspective of young people about their parents’ paid and unpaid work, its implications for their lives and the links between work and consumption.

Explores in detail the life changes and attitudes of 20 downshifters to answer the questions prompted by the first study on downshifting completed in January 2003. The in-depth interviews were augmented by four focus groups held across the country and aimed to explain why people downshift, how they change, how others react, what are their

The Australian education system is currently experiencing rapid change at all levels. This paper considers the recent trends in private school enrolments and fees in light of the new university arrangements which allow for Australian citizens to enrol as full fee paying students rather than having to rely solely on academic merit to earn a

Analyses the conditions that facilitate access, participation and pleasure at chamber music concerts to demonstrate that cultural policy-makers and arts organisations need to engage in strategies that acknowledge more directly the audience experience.

This study parallels Discussion Paper 50 and shows that 25 per cent of British adults aged between 30 and 59 have downshifted over the last ten years.

Shifting social and economic conditions have both intensified the obstacles to, and created new possibilities for, involved fathering and more sophisticated strategies are needed on the part of the community and government to enable men to capitalise on these recent possibilities.

The coalition’s introduced a 30% private health insurance rebate, costing $2.5 billion per annum. This policy favours urban centres as rural areas have less private hospitals; less money from the rebate going to them, on a per capita bias; and will be affected by the yearly rise in prices after the age of 30. As

Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme uses economic evaluations on the price of drugs. The US equivalent, the Federal Supply Schedule does not use such pricing references. As a result the most prescribed pharmaceutical drugs in the US can be between 79% and 306% more expensive than in Australia.

This piece uses three main statistics, to come to the conclusion that 1/3 of Australian adults have a drug dependency. Firstly The National Health Survey found that 18.1% of people have had medication in the past fortnight for mental health reasons; secondly that when coupled with the amount of Australians who partake in risky alcohol

Examines a possible trade-off the Australian Government might be tempted to make in order to achieve a Free Trade Agreement with the US.

Explores Australia’s current commitment to the observance of universal human rights standards and its relationship with the international institutions established to monitor them.

This Discussion Paper follows on from the previous one. It examines the effectiveness of current regulatory arrangements and puts forward new proposals for minimising youth exposure to internet pornography. A section of the report presents the findings of a survey specially commissioned to determine the attitudes of parents to the question of their children’s access

This paper examines the extent to which youth in Australia is exposed to pornography through the Internet and X-rated videos and summarises the literature on the possible harmful effects of that exposure, drawing from this the conclusion that youth should be protected to a far greater extent than it currently is. Some of the material

The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) spent $97 million of taxpayer’s money from 2001-2002 on scholarships for athletes. With each scholarship averaging $23,000 per year, per student, there should be a HECS style sporting scheme. This would entail athletes earning more than $100,000 per annum having to repay the AIS.

The preoccupation with money and consumption comes at an increasing cost. Many Australians consider that money-hunger conflicts with their deeper values and preferences and results in a society that is too materialistic. There is evidence that many people are deciding to accept lower incomes and consumption levels in order to have more balance in their

High-income earners over $50,000 for individuals and $100, 000 for families pay a Medicare Levy Surcharge of 1 %( $500 and $1000 respectively). High-income earners can be exempted from the surcharge if they have private insurance, insurance companies exploit this and provide policies with annual costs under the respective $500 and $1000. The insurance policies

The world’s scientists have warned that the nations of the world will need to shift to a low-carbon future in order to avoid dangerous changes to the global climate. Even the Federal Environment Minister admits that Australia will need to cut greenhouse gas emission by 60 per cent or more. This report is ground breaking

Throughout the Western world, the changing nature of families has led to a highly charged debate and when commentators talk of how families have changed they usually compare family structures now to those of the 1950s and 1960s. Families are changing, but for reasons far more complex than declining moral values and rising selfish individualism.

The ‘ageing crisis’ is founded on three main assumptions: that older people are a social and economic burden; that population ageing will result in a serious dependency ratio imbalance; and, that there is a close correspondence between the size of the aged population and increased public expenditure. This paper argues that the transition to an

A report last year by the Allen Consulting Group has played a pivotal role in reinforcing perceptions that cutting greenhouse gases would result in large economic costs and extensive job losses, especially in regional and rural Australia. The first part of this paper exposes a number of serious errors in the Allen Consulting report on