This month focuses on the following topics: Granny flats, gambling and mental health and well-being. 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 Building Approvals, September 2023 1 Nov ABS Selected Living Cost Indexes, September 2023 1 Nov ABS Education and Work, May 2023 ... Read more...
This week – 24–31 October 2023 – is UNESCO’s Global Media and Information Literacy Week. The theme this year is ‘Media and Information Literacy in Digital Spaces: A Collective Global Agenda’. The prevalence of misinformation and disinformation in the media is a cause for concern around the world. The sharing of false information presented as truth raises many potential harms, including health and safety concerns, the undermining of democratic processes, and the spread of hate speech. Research also suggests that the distortion of the truth online impacts peoples’ reasoning skills even after information has been corrected. Read more...
On 9 June 2023, the Attorney-General announced that the Police Ministers Council ‘had taken an important step towards a National Firearms Register by reaching unanimous agreement on options to be put to National Cabinet’. The register will replace the Australian Firearms Information Network currently operated by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. Options for implementing a national firearms register were requested by National Cabinet in the aftermath of the Wieambilla terrorist shooting in December 2022. The attack resulted in the deaths of 2 police officers and a local member of the community, and brought the shortcomings of the current system into focus. This Fla... Read more...
In December 2022, the Chinese state-owned newspaper China Daily carried an op-ed entitled ‘Hail the pioneering spirit of relations between China and NZ’ which lauded New Zealand’s relationship with China. Six months later, during a visit to China by NZ Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, Xi Jinping was reported to have told him that ‘China-New Zealand relations have long been a “pacesetter” in China’s relations with developed countries’. This repeated a maxim Xi had used with former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during her visit to Beijing in April 2019. Read more...
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