Australia’s security agencies have become increasingly politicised under the Howard Government. Whistleblower and former intelligence official Andrew Wilkie has put forward a four-point plan to ensure the independence of Australian security agencies.

A response to a series of papers authored mainly by Helen Hughes whose argument that customary land tenures are the principal cause of poverty in PNG, and that Australia should make its aid contingent upon changes, is influential in Government circles. This report argues that the proposed privatisation is based on wholesale confusion about the

Proposes a new global plan for international action on climate change which would enable all countries to work together to achieve deep cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions over the next decades.

The tsunamis in the Indian Ocean reflect the issues States are going to face as sea levels rise. 80% of the Maldives are less than one meter above sea level, and if the sea rises 1.5 meters in Bangladesh 17 million people will be affected. The tsunamis that hit these places offer an opportunity’ for

Australia has always enjoyed rigorous national food standards that were applied equally to both domestically produced and imported food. The capacity to maintain and apply these standards, however, is now being undermined by international trade agreements and procedures for settling trade disputes with a result that challenges to public health are being significantly increased.

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.

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.

Policies towards North Korea under Bush have been shaped by an imperial and cold war framework, compared to the economic relationship sort by South Korea through the Sunshine policy. Great power interests have split Korea in half and this piece recommends that internal Korean relations must be normalized before any international action is taken.

North Korea since there withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has been labelled a ‘rogue State.’ While the US has continued a policy of containment South Korea wants to reopen ties to North Korea through the ‘’Sunshine’’ policy. This piece recommends Australia follows the South Korean example and reengages with, not excludes, North Korea.

Against the approximately $1.1 billion contribution koalas make to Australia’s tourism industry, this article proposes leveraging enduring international interest in koalas with proposed conservation efforts and koala culls on Kangaroo Island to create a koala hunting industry that would contribute further to the inbound tourism sector.

Clive Hamilton and Hal Turton respond critically to some of the recent claims made in bestselling book ‘The Skeptical Environmentalist’ by Bjorn Lomborg, a Danish statistician who claims to be an environmentalist. They argue that Lomborg’s analysis is both too amateur and too simplistic to be taken seriously.

Submission No. 4 to the Senate Environment References Committee Inquiry into Australia’s Response to Global Warming

Address to the Taxation Institute of Australia’s Corporate Tax Intensive Conference, Sheraton Towers, Melbourne