Since the 1970s, when family fertility levels began to decline in Australia, a great deal of attention has been given to identifying the causes of the phenomenon. Among those factors often cited are the widespread use of the “pill”, the incidence of abortion, the rising age of marriage, and increased participation by married women in…
While UN weapons inspectors, operating under UN Security Council mandate, are examining Iraq’s extensive chemical and military facilities for evidence of the existence of illegal chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear agents, the case against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein rests more on his persistent efforts to secretly acquire these types of weapons over many years, and on the potential for such weapons to be supplied to international terrorist organisations, particularly Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network. The failure of US military action in Afghanistan to wipe out al Qaeda, and the continued existence of a network of terrorist organisations linked to…
Last month, the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Pru Goward, released her 277 page report, A time to value, in which she proposed a government-funded 14 week paid maternity leave scheme, for women in the paid workforce. The problem with this is: what happens after 14 weeks? The unspoken assumption is that the mother simply returns to…
Behind the hype and headlines surrounding the re-election of the Bracks Labor Government in Victoria, some important facts have been largely ignored. In terms of seats won, the election result is accurately described as a landslide. But in terms of votes received, the ALP vote increased only 2.8 per cent on its vote in 1999,…