This Flagpost looks at changes in different generation’s first preference votes to the major parties over the past eight House of Representatives elections, based on Australian Election Survey (AES) data. The AES (run by the Australian National University) has conducted post-election sample surveys after every federal election since 1987. While (the many) pre-election opinion polls capture voter intention, post-election surveys more accurately identify who actually voted for whom. Methodology and notes are below the final chart (Figure 5). First preferences by party and generation As an introduction, Figure 1 shows the AES results to the four groups at the 2022 election by generation. ... Read more...
In just over 6 months, the 47th Parliament has established close to 70 committees and tabled more than 70 reports across the Senate and House of Representatives committees. However, once a committee tables a report with recommendations, what’s next? This question was raised 50 years ago and led to a resolution requiring the Government to respond to Senate committees’ recommendations, as will be discussed in this Flagpost article. Read more...
International Women’s Day (IWD) is being acknowledged on 8 March 2023. The UN Women’s theme for this year is #CrackingtheCode, which aims to use innovation to increase women’s participation in the digital world through better access to technology, increased inclusivity and championing of women’s involvement in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Read more...
On 8 March 2023, a commemorative sculpture of Dame Enid Lyons and Dame Dorothy Tangney will be unveiled in the National Triangle (Parliamentary Triangle) near the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House. It will be the first statue of Australian women in the Triangle; the only woman previously honoured was Queen Elizabeth II, whose statue is located on the Queen’s Terrace at Parliament House. Read more...
The Inquiry into 7-Eleven report by the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) and other similar reports revealed systematic underpayment of migrant workers and other unlawful employment practices by some franchisees. In response, the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Act 2017 (the Amending Act) made amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (FW Act) to make franchisors and holding companies responsible for underpayments by their franchisees or subsidiaries where they knew, or ought reasonably to have known of the contraventions, and failed to take reasonable steps to prevent them [sections 558A, 558B and 558C]. On 7 February 2023, the FWO instituted proceedings against 85 Degrees Coffee Au... Read more...
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In December 2016, the Parliamentary Library published a FlagPost explaining how people in multiple relationships—those with more than one partner—were treated for social security purposes. At the time, social security policy recognised that individuals could be in a de facto relationship with more than one person at a time and could treat each relationship as a separate couple relationship. In August 2018, the Department of Social Services policy guide was updated to state: ‘The Australian social security system does NOT recognise the existence of multiple relationships’. This FlagPost replaces the incorrect 2016 one and examines the effect of the 2018 policy change. Read more...
This month: the latest data from the 2022 Youth Survey and the 2022 Population Statement. 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 Jobs (a) Nowcast of Employment by Region and Occupation, January 2023 1 Feb ABS Selected Living Cost Indexes, December 2022 1 Feb ABS Building Approvals, December 2022 2 Feb ... Read more...
In response to concerns about increased prevalence of intentional paracetamol self-poisoning, especially among young women, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is undertaking work to explore whether it should change paracetamol accessibility in Australia. Read more...
The Scanlon Foundation Research Institute’s latest annual Mapping Social Cohesion Report was released late last year. It found that the sense of national pride and belonging has declined to its lowest level since the survey began in 2007. However, the report also indicates that while the sense of belonging at a national level has declined, social cohesion at the neighbourhood level was resilient, particularly amongst culturally diverse communities. This FlagPost explores some issues in the report’s findings related to migrant communities and sense of belonging. Read more...
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