This month: Life expectancy, road vehicle statistics, Treasury update (2022) and National Bowel Cancer Month. Forthcoming releases If you are interested in any of the forthcoming releases or datasets, please contact the Parliamentary Library to discuss in more detail. Statistical reports Release date ABS Managed Funds, September 2022 1 Dec ABS Private New Capital Expenditure and Expected Expenditure, September 2022 1 Dec ABS Assets and Liabilities of Australian ... Read more...
With the Government committing to a constitutional referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, an important question has become whether the Referendums (Machinery Provisions) Act 1984 (Referendums Act) remains fit for purpose. Australia has two main pieces of legislation that cover the conduct of federal electoral events. The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Electoral Act) covers federal elections and election-related issues. Alongside this is the Referendums Act, which covers constitutional referendums. While the Electoral Act has seen various reforms over recent parliaments, including to the enrolment process and telephone voting, the Referendums Act may be showing its age. Read more...
While children—young and old—in the countdown to Christmas are probably more focused on chocolate advent calendars, parliamentarians need to settle on a new sitting calendar. Balancing the norms of a sitting calendar with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s promise not to sit during school holidays across all states and territories, requires careful programming. This Flagpost article discusses the various considerations that go into developing a sitting calendar including avoiding school holidays. Read more...
The Australian Government’s largest infrastructure commitment in the October 2022–23 Budget is $2.2 billion for the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) in Victoria. The October 2022–23 Budget started a budget repair fiscal narrative, which included a focus on increased ‘value for money’. The SRL funding announcement precedes the evaluation of the SRL business case by Infrastructure Australia to recommend whether the project represents value for money and should be placed on the Infrastructure Priority List. Read more...
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) releases quarterly estimates of employed people by industry (in their main job, if a person holds more than one job) in the publication Labour Force, Australia, Detailed. Quarterly data is available since November 1984, with the most recent data being August 2022. Read more...
Now that the Treasurer’s Budget speech is over, the work of legislating the Budget begins. This includes parliamentarians sitting in the Federation Chamber for the Consideration in Detail (CiD) stage of Appropriation Bill No. 1 (the Bill), navigating House Estimates. If you’re not familiar with any of these terms, don’t worry – you’re definitely not alone. House Estimates gets significantly less attention than it’s Senate counterpart, so this Flagpost seeks to provide some clarity and context around this largely unknown aspect of House of Representatives procedure. Read more...
The Government's introduction of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) legislation has led to discussion about the potential for political donations (particularly large donations) to have a corrupting influence. This is occurring in the context of a federal parliamentary committee inquiry into the 2022 election and two state anti-corruption agencies’ recent comments on links between political finance rules and corruption. Read more...
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