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About the House, your free colour magazine
 About the House is a free colour feature magazine produced five times a year by the Liaison & Projects Office of the House of Representatives. It covers the varied work of Members of the House, especially Committee investigations.
The magazine is available through the offices of every Member of the House of Representatives, or can be ordered directly through the Liaison & Projects Office (tel: 02 6277 2122, email: liaison.reps@aph.gov.au).
The current About the House magazine is the July/August 2003 edition (Issue 17).
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In the current edition (July/August 2003)
Cover story:
Feature articles:
Previous editions
Cover Story - July/August 2003:
Let the games begin
While Australia has some key global players in the games industry, they have a fraction of the profile of those in film and television (Star Wars/Matrix). But they have just as much potential.
In this edition of About the House, freelance journalist Sandy George reports on a multi-million dollar industry that is the focus of a new parliamentary inquiry.
Robert Walsh is chief executive of Krome Studios, the company behind the first Australian electronic game to sell more than one million units worldwide. The game is Ty the Tasmanian Tiger and it has grossed more than US$30 million.
Ask Walsh how government can help the games industry in ways that dont involve direct financial assistance and his answer is swift: Training. We struggle to find talented and experienced people without having to take them from other companies or import them from overseas. Adding more games programming electives to the final year of existing computer science courses would be a simple way of helping.
What also makes Ty special is that the intellectual property is owned within Australia. While there are games developers in this country that can take credit for some very big hits, very few games are owned locally. Developers revenues flow from work they have won from offshore, usually from the US and in highly competitive circumstances. Though the resultant activity creates employment and earns export dollars, only a small proportion of the royalties, if any, flow back into Australia.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document, or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
Fire Storm
More than 400 submissions have been received by the House of Representatives committee investigating the 2003 summer bushfires. The submissions come from all states, and a range of perspectives. About the House reviews some of the evidence received so far.
Last summers bushfires have ignited a debate which has been a long time coming.
Among dozens of issues, at its heart are competing views over fuel reduction burning and grazing in national parks, maintenance of access roads, and making best use of local knowledge.
Submission after submission from individuals and units involved in fighting the fires are strongly critical of government authorities on each of these points.
The submission from the Bushfire Management Committee and Group Captains of the Snowy River Rural Fire District in south-western NSW is typical of many received from on-the-ground fire fighters.
It blames the severity of the fires on fuel build up, lack of hazard reduction on a regular basis, and fire trails that had not been maintained to a condition that was acceptable for use.
It says the only places where the fires were contained were where access and fuel loads were manageable that is, where the fire came out of the National Park onto private land that was still being used for grazing, and in areas where burning regimes had been carried out by individual landholders.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document, or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
The right to stand but not to sit
Its one hundred years since Australian women were first able to vote and stand as candidates in federal elections. Marian Sawer reflects on a century of women candidates for the House of Representatives.
One hundred years ago, the federal election of 1903 consolidated Australias reputation as an advanced democracy. For the first time anywhere in the world women stood as candidates for their national parliament. Australia was in the lead internationally in terms of womens political rights. In New Zealand women were regularly voting for parliament but they had to wait until 1919 to be allowed to stand as candidates.
In Australia some women voted in the 1901 federal election, but the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 extended such rights to women across the continent. Australia became the object of international attention as women took their place as equal citizens in the new nation. High hopes were pinned on the impact women would have in purifying politics and focusing more attention on welfare issues. It was little noticed at the time that not all women had achieved the vote and that Indigenous Australians had to wait another 60 years for a uniform federal franchise.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document, or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
Missing Links
The transport problems faced by Australias major populated islands are being examined as part of a House of Representatives Transport and Regional Services Committee inquiry. Recently the people of Kangaroo Island in South Australia and Flinders Island in Tasmania had their say.
Kangaroo Island, situated off the Fleurieu Peninsula about an hours drive south of Adelaide, is the third largest island off the Australian coast. It is the nations most populated island, excluding Tasmania, with a population of some 4,300.
The Kangaroo Island economy is rurally based, with a strong and ever-increasing focus on tourism. In 2002-03 the island will receive 143,000 visitors, up from 56,000 twenty years ago.
It is an icon destination, up with the best in Australia, according to the Chief Executive of the Kangaroo Island Development Board, David Furniss. Interestingly, 20 per cent of all international visitors to South Australia come to Kangaroo Island. In fact, about 50 per cent of all visitors to the island are now international.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document, or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
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