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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 November/December 2002 edition (Issue 14).
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In the current edition (November/December 2002)
Cover story:
Feature articles:
Previous editions
Cover Story - November/December 2002:
Hot Property: the global market for skills
It's happening all over the world-countries competing to attract people with the best skills, changing the rules to make it easier for people in demand to live and work where they are needed. With federal parliament's Migration Committee reviewing Australia's skilled migration program, migration expert Professor John Salt looks at this new international phenomenon and how various countries are responding to it.
There is a growing realisation that the last two decades have seen the emergence of a global migration market. It affects all levels of skill but the real competition is for those with high levels of human expertise. There is now a complex pattern of movement by professional, managerial and technical staff. Since these movements are multi-directional, involving most states to a greater or lesser degree, we may call them "international brain exchanges". Some countries are now more active than others in seeking to make net gains from these exchanges.
The main stimulus for competition in the global migration market has come from governments. Competition was led in the 1980s by Australia and Canada, followed in the 1990s by the US. Europe held itself largely aloof until very recently with little action and almost no debate about competition in the migration skills market. Employers worldwide are now facing the problem of integrating new processes and technologies which require specific skills but are finding they must compete internationally, where the main competitors are the US, Australia and Canada and a growing number of European states.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document, or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
Ageing, ready or not!
To many baby boomers, the 60s and 70s marked the dawning of the 'Age of Aquarius'. But in 2002 it's the 'ageing of Aquarius' that has the attention of policy-makers, including the House of Representatives Committee on Ageing. There are many aspects to the ageing puzzle, and plenty of lessons already from international experience.
Baby boomers-the generation born in the wake of World War 2-have had an enormous impact on Australian and international policy-making.
Not only has the baby boom generation been involved in a huge amount of social change, but because of their sheer weight of numbers, massive amounts of infrastructure spending have always been devoted to their changing needs. First it was schools that were required; then universities; then whole suburbs, as they settled down to start their own families.
Next it will be the services required by older people. Health services, care services, housing, income support. The baby boomers are ageing, ready or not.
Right now, just over 12 per cent of Australia's population, or about 2.4 million people, is aged 65 or over. By 2031, more than 21 per cent of Australia's population will be aged 65-plus - that's more than five million people, including all the baby boomers.
And those people will live longer, and remain healthier longer, than today's older generation.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document, or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
Boys: getting it right
The House of Representatives Education Committee has released the report of its two-year investigation into issues surrounding the education of boys. The unanimous report found various aspects of the education system failing many boys, and makes 24 recommendations to remedy the situation.
On almost any 'outcome' indicator, boys are not doing as well at schools as girls.
Be it literacy rates, retention rates, tertiary entrance scores or university commencements, boys are now lagging behind.
And, in many cases, the gaps are accelerating.
On literacy, for instance, year 2000 figures show 3.4 per cent fewer boys achieving national benchmarks than girls at year 3 level; by year 5, it's 4.4 per cent fewer boys than girls. In the 20-year period between 1975 and 1995, the number of 14-year-old boys achieving a satisfactory literacy rate has gone from three per cent behind girls to eight per cent.
While there are variations across states, in 80 to 90 per cent of higher school certificate results girls are now outstripping boys. Looking at NSW, in 1981 boys and girls scored roughly the same tertiary entrance score. By 1996 there was a 19.4 per cent differential between the achievements of boys and girls. Today, 56 per cent of new university enrolments are girls.
These are just some of the startling findings of the House of Representatives Education Committee's two-year investigation into boys' education.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document, or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
Home and Away
Travel with work is often seen as a benefit, but it's not always what it's made out to be. For many Australians who must regularly travel interstate or overseas with their jobs, the pressures of separation from family can make life difficult-for them and their families. There is added pressure when it means being separated from young children. Peter Cotton finds out that members of the House of Representatives face the same dilemmas-and how that can help them to be better representatives.
Federal parliamentarian Christopher Pyne says he would be happy and proud if one or more of his three children decided to become politicians, but he doubts it'll ever happen.
"Experience tells us that the children of politicians don't usually follow their parents into parliament," says Mr Pyne, the Member for Sturt. "That probably tells us something about how hard the children of parliamentarians find the separation from their parent who is a politician."
And it's not only the children who find the separation difficult. Christopher Pyne feels a profound wrench when he leaves his young family at home in Adelaide to attend parliamentary sittings. His wife Carolyn recently gave birth to baby Felix, and the Pynes have a set of two-year-old twins, Eleanor and Barnaby.
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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