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About the House, your free, colour magazine
 About the House is a free colour feature magazine produced up to 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 (telephone: freecall 1800 139 299, email: liaison.reps@aph.gov.au).
The current About the House magazine is the June 2006 edition (Issue 27).
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In the current edition (June 2006)
Cover story:
Feature articles:
Previous editions
Cover Story - June 2006:
Ready Set Grow
With the nation rapidly ageing, Australians
have been urged to start superannuation savings early.
But among the many without super, women are in the majority
as a House of Representatives inquiry has learned. Story: Geoffrey Maslen
Despite the advent of compulsory superannuation and 9 per
cent employer levies, despite the exhortations of governments
and those in the industry, many Australians will never contribute
enough over their lifetimes to survive without the pension.
They include the disabled who may always have been unemployed,
casual workers whose incomes are too low, and those who change jobs
often but fail to keep track of the superannuation payments
they and various employers have made on their behalf.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document, or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
All aboard?
Hopes are growing for a north-south inland train route to ease freight congestion on the eastern seaboard.
It’s an idea that’s been talked about
for 110 years, but despite bursts of enthusiasm,
it’s never had enough political or financial support
to make it a reality…until now.
For the first time in more than a century,
federal and state governments appear to be
backing the completion of a great inland railway.
It’s a visionary plan to link two major ports by 4,500 km
of rail track through the rural heartland of Australia’s eastern states.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document, or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
Changing practice
A new trend in nursing aims to take some of the pressure off our health system. Story: Andrew Dawson
When you next visit a doctor’s surgery,
don’t be surprised if you get treated by a nurse instead of a GP.
The trend of more and more nurses working
in general practice has been confirmed by a
new study revealing a 23 per cent increase in
practice nurses over the past two years.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document (127 kb), or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
A green blueprint
Following a parliamentary report on sustainable cities, the next step is developing a strong,
inclusive sustainability charter, writes Don Henry, Executive Director of the Australian Conservation Foundation.
“A vision for sustainability must engage
Australians and have meaning—it must close
the gap between policy makers and the lived
reality of Australians who will, ultimately,
be the practitioners of sustainability principles.”
I really like this statement from the Sustainable
cities report, tabled in September last year by the
House of Representatives Environment and Heritage
Committee. It sets an ambitious, yet practical,
tone for the next stage of the process—the development
of an Australian sustainability charter. It makes a
point that the charter must be inclusive, engaging the
broad spectrum of the Australian community—not only
policy makers—and must strike a balance between broad
aspirational aims and very specific concrete goals.
If it is to work, it will need to be outcome-oriented
and will need to set targets for governments, for industry,
for the community.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document (117 kb), or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
Living with giants
A parliamentary inquiry into strategic trends in Australia’s region and their consequences for our defence
requirements is extremely timely, writes Dr Brendan Taylor.
From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, the so-called
‘East Asian economic miracle’ provided many Asia-Pacific
governments with the option of increasing their national
defence expenditures. This became a source of concern as regional
arms acquisitions burgeoned at alarming rates, with some commentators
even going so far as to posit the emergence of ‘a new Asian arms race’.
Such an outcome would have been particularly worrisome for Australia, which
has long sought to retain a measure of military superiority in its nearer region.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document (140 kb), or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
Across the spectrum
More and more Australians are tuning into community broadcasting, but it faces many challenges, as a House of Representatives committee is finding out. Story: Chris Uhlmann
If you are a student of Australian history then
any reference to “Document J” will reek of the Petrov Affair.
That is unless your area of speciality is broadcasting,
in which case you will immediately think of the sensational
start to a Whitlam-era conference on community radio.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document (129 kb), or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
I can see clearly now
Five MPs first elected to federal parliament in 1993
talk about their experiences in the House of Representatives,
and agree experience does count. Story: Peter Cotton
Harry Quick concedes that, like most politicians, he has a
healthy ego. Luckily, he also has a large coterie of constituents
ready to deflate him should his ego get overblown.
“Just about every male that comes into my office asks the
receptionist ‘Is the bastard in?’,” says Mr Quick,
Member for Franklin (Tas). “That always brings me back to reality.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document (122 kb), or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
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