Australian Federal Parliament Research Articles

Mechanisation, wages, and royalties: Unpacking coal lock-in through 120 years of parliamentary debates in the world's largest exporter

Australia is the world's largest exporter of coal by value, and only recently lost out on volume to neighbouring Indonesia. This paper examines 120 years of parliamentary debates to better understand how Australia attained this position and the lessons this has for a carbon constrained future. The paper adopts a socio-technical transitions perspective, drawing on parliamentary records, historical literature and socio-economic statistics. This comprehensive large-scale analysis uses established dynamic topic modelling methods, and contributes novel tools and methods to aid the quality, interpretation and reproduction of the presented results. Results show that after supply and workers' rights problems, a mid-century compromise was reached between the main political parties (and industrial actors). This compromise relied on increasing the efficiency and hence profitability of mines. Profits would be shared with workers to remove industrial disputes. This initiative set off a path-dependent trajectory of growth that forestalled competition from lower-wage producers like Indonesia and hampered reactions as climate change came to the fore. Attention to coal in the Australian federal parliament is now at even higher levels than in the 1950s. However, while a similar compromise appears necessary, it does not seem forthcoming.

Parliamentary Dress

Parliamentary Dress

Moral framings in the Australian parliamentary debate on drug testing of welfare recipients

AbstractAround the world an expanding array of behavioural conditions are being attached to social security payments. This paper offers empirical evidence of the various moral frames used in the welfare conditionality debate, by its supporters and detractors. We systematically analyse the debates in the Australian federal parliament in 2017 and 2018 on two bills attempting to introduce drug testing of working‐age welfare recipients, each of which resulted in stalemate. We find that proponents of welfare conditionality primarily employed consequentialist and paternalist arguments, supplemented by social justice, contractualism and communitarianism whilst opponents primarily employed consequentialist and social justice arguments. We explore how proponents and opponents anticipated and engaged with each other's preferred moral frames. By investigating the normative lenses that underpin arguments made for and against the drug‐testing proposal, we shed light on how the debate on drug testing might be moved beyond its current impasse.

Australia’s encryption laws: practical need or political strategy?

To investigate terrorism, law enforcement and intelligence agencies increasingly require assistance from multinational technology companies including Facebook, Google and Apple. These companies can assist with decrypting secret communications or unlocking personal devices, but not, they maintain, without undermining the privacy and security of all their users. While other western countries continue to debate these issues, Australia legislated quickly to enhance decryption capabilities with little industry consultation. This article examines the encryption laws recently enacted by the Australian federal parliament, which allow law enforcement and intelligence agencies to require technical assistance from ‘designated communications providers’. It interrogates the government’s justifications for these laws and examines the wider legal and political context in which they were enacted. The analysis confirms that Australia’s approach to decryption does not represent sound practice and instead reflects a pattern of rights-infringing lawmaking in response to terrorism.

'in defence of liberty'?

After the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe in September 1939, emergency internment legislation passed by the Australian Federal Parliament created a network of camp sites across Australia. What do these historic landscapes mean in Australia today and how can we interpret them? Some feature government-installed interpretation signs; others remain silent concrete ruins concealed within private farmland, unmoored from any context and living memory. These sites are connected to other Allied internment sites globally, and the journeys between these sites vividly rendered in artworks, diaries and letters left behind by internees as well as the isolated cemeteries where they were buried adrift between continents.

The 2019 report of the MJA-Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: a turbulent year with mixed progress.

The MJA-Lancet Countdown on health and climate change was established in 2017 and produced its first Australian national assessment in 2018. It examined 41 indicators across five broad domains: climate change impacts, exposures and vulnerability; adaptation, planning and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; economics and finance; and public and political engagement. It found that, overall, Australia is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change on health, and that policy inaction in this regard threatens Australian lives. In this report we present the 2019 update. We track progress on health and climate change in Australia across the same five broad domains and many of the same indicators as in 2018. A number of new indicators are introduced this year, including one focused on wildfire exposure, and another on engagement in health and climate change in the corporate sector. Several of the previously reported indicators are not included this year, either due to their discontinuation by the parent project, the Lancet Countdown, or because insufficient new data were available for us to meaningfully provide an update to the indicator. In a year marked by an Australian federal election in which climate change featured prominently, we find mixed progress on health and climate change in this country. There has been progress in renewable energy generation, including substantial employment increases in this sector. There has also been some progress at state and local government level. However, there continues to be no engagement on health and climate change in the Australian federal Parliament, and Australia performs poorly across many of the indicators in comparison to other developed countries; for example, it is one of the world's largest net exporters of coal and its electricity generation from low carbon sources is low. We also find significantly increasing exposure of Australians to heatwaves and, in most states and territories, continuing elevated suicide rates at higher temperatures. We conclude that Australia remains at significant risk of declines in health due to climate change, and that substantial and sustained national action is urgently required in order to prevent this.

Populism? Minor parties and independents in the Australian Federal Parliament, 1945–2016

ABSTRACTThe election of four One Nation Senators at the 2016 Australian Federal election has been seen as part of a world–wide rise of populist movements that criticizes main stream politics and rejects pluralism, putting forward single concepts of “the people”, that the movements claim to represent. While it is clear that Australian voters, like voters elsewhere, have been seeking alternatives to the major parties, it is less clear that the preferred alternatives fit this populist framework. Australia provides a good case study as the Australian electoral system makes it relatively easy for independents and minor parties to be elected to Parliament. This paper examines all independents and minor party candidates successfully elected in 2016 and at previous Australian Federal elections to determine whether the alternatives to the main stream parties elected since 1945 fit anti-pluralist populist models. It is concluded that, with the exception of the One Nation Party, most of the independents and minor party candidates elected to the Australian Federal Parliament have not fitted such models. However many of those elected do present a challenge to the electoral claims of the major parties. The article concludes by considering the implications of these findings for representative democracy.

Beyond Marriage Equality & Skin Curling

December 2017 marked the culmination of a tedious process which lead to the enactment by the Australian federal Parliament of long overdue amendments to the Marriage Act 1961 (Cth). However, the anomalous approach in the form of a public postal vote that was employed in deciding whether a minority of citizens should be afforded equal civil rights to other citizens highlighted and exacerbated the vulnerability experienced by the very subjects it sought to redress. Nonetheless, in reminiscing about the significant changes that I have witnessed in my lifetime regarding alleviation of the uniquely hostile discrimination against LGBTIQ citizens is doubtless a step in the right direction and can make us optimistic about times to come, but also impatient to complete these changes in the hope that similar discrimination and injustices circumvented in times to come — and for generations to come.

The Psychological Underpinnings of Conservative/Liberal Ideology in the Australian Federal Parliament: A Computational Linguistic Analysis

The purpose of this article is to examine the psychological elements of the ideology of members of the major parties in the Australian federal parliament using computational linguistics. The cohort consists of the 485 Labor, Liberal and National parliamentarians who were in parliament over the period April 1996 to July 2014. I use computational linguistics to extract linguistic variables from first speeches in parliament of those in the cohort. I draw from methods used in machine learning to develop a classifier which has a 74% out of sample (leave-one-out cross validation) accuracy in classifying parliamentarians as liberal (ALP) or conservative (Liberal/National Party Coalition). I then examine the salient variables and find that there are only six linguistic markers of conservative/liberal ideology. Of these, two are consistent with the previous findings that liberals tend to display more psychological 'openness' than conservatives and less psychological 'conscientiousness'. However, one of these variables strongly challenges the idea that conservatives look to the past and liberals to the future. Two of the linguistic variables are 'suppressor' variables and I discuss these variables in the context of their role in suppressing 'irrelevant' variance in the other independent variables.

Creating disorder

This paper investigates the effect of an upcoming election on disorderly behaviour in two Houses of Representatives: that of the Australian Federal Parliament and that of the New Zealand Parliament. Two hypotheses are tested. The first hypothesis is that, notwithstanding their common origins in the Westminster parliamentary tradition, there are significant genrelectal differences in the way the two Houses respond to the impending election. The second hypothesis is that both will respond by becoming increasingly disorderly. The locus for measuring disorderly conduct is taken from the Wednesday parliamentary Question Time for the year 2007 in the case of Australia and 2008 in the case of New Zealand. All instances of disorderly conduct were tracked and a month-by-month measure was made of each kind of disorder as indicated by Standing Orders. All responses of the Speaker to disorder were also logged. The research shows that both hypotheses are corroborated.

Women and Representation: Cross-Party Collaboration in the Australian Federal Parliament

The Parliament of Australia has been host to a rare phenomenon of ‘cross-party collaboration’ (CPC), in which politicians work together across party lines by co-sponsoring a bill or voting together in a conscience vote. CPC points to gaps in political parties' platforms, leading individual politicians to seek representation of issues outside party divisions. This article explores the phenomenon of CPC and outlines different ways it has been used by politicians. As will be demonstrated, CPC in the Australian context is relatively gendered as mainly women politicians have used it to advance socio-moral issues, suggesting an alternative style of representation.

Cross-Party Collaboration and Women Politicians in the Australian Federal Parliament

The Australian federal parliament has been host to a rare but fascinating phenomenon of ‘cross-party collaboration’ (CPC) in which politicians work together across party lines, often by co-sponsoring a bill or voting together in a conscience vote. In this paper I will define CPC and outline the different ways it has been used by politicians. CPC in the Australian context is a relatively gendered practice as mainly women politicians have used it to advance issues including euthanasia and abortion. The use of collaborative activities was particularly high between 1996 and 2006 and I therefore take examples of CPC from this time period. I argue that the persistent androcentrism of parliament has contributed to the use of CPC by women politicians. The higher numbers of men in parliament, strict party control, and adversarial style of parliament have impeded the representation of certain issues, usually those associated with women's reproductive rights. By using CPC, women politicians have demonstrated that there are certain issues they are prepared to act on, even if it means collaborating with ideological adversaries. The use of CPC suggests that women politicians can be unconventional and non-adversarial in their legislative behaviour and are more willing to represent issues in a different manner to traditional political means.

The Selection of Cabinet Ministers in the Australian Federal Parliament

The two fundamental questions addressed in this thesis are 1) what are the characteristics that are associated with an Australian federal parliamentarian becoming a cabinet minister, and 2) how do these characteristics help a parliamentarian become a cabinet minister? I examine the standard representational and institutional explanations for cabinet appointment decisions such as geography, party/faction, gender and house (Senate vs House of Representatives) and find they do not account for more than 25% of cabinet appointments. I therefore turn to individual characteristics of cabinet ministers. I use education, linguistic/cognitive style, and biographical data to develop a classification model. Using data mining, I isolate three characteristics that explain a high proportion of the appointments to cabinet over the period under examination. These variables are: i) having a legal qualification: ii) entering parliament at an early age: and iii) using abstract language. These three variables explain approximately 78% of cabinet appointments over the period under investigation. I argue that these variables are associated with cabinet appointment because they tap into a particular set of cognitive and behavioural characteristics that are beneficial in demonstrating cabinet potential. An important insight from the analysis is that, in selecting parliamentarians to serve in cabinet, personal factors are more important than representational factors.

The Accountability of Members of Australia's Federal Parliament for Misconduct

Recent times have seen serious allegations of misconduct made against members of Australia’s federal Parliament. This has led to calls for more effective parliamentary and independent mechanisms to address allegations of misbehaviour. Drawing on comparative perspectives from the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland and laws in place in the Australian States and Territories, this article considers the extent to which additional measures would assist the Australian federal Parliament to manage the misconduct of its members. It proposes a model of extended accountability to provide more robust mechanisms for the management of parliamentary misconduct.

New Transfer Pricing Legislation

The author describes the principal amendments proposed as a result of the introduction on 24 May 2012 into the Australian Federal Parliament of new transfer pricing legislation, and the context of those amendments.

The Selection of Cabinet Ministers in the Australian Federal Parliament

The two fundamental questions addressed in this thesis are 1) what are the characteristics that are associated with an Australian federal parliamentarian becoming a cabinet minister, and 2) how do these characteristics help a parliamentarian become a cabinet minister? I examine the standard representational and institutional explanations for cabinet appointment decisions such as geography, party/faction, gender and house (Senate vs House of Representatives) and find they do not account for more than 25% of cabinet appointments. I therefore turn to individual characteristics of cabinet ministers. I use education, linguistic/cognitive style, and biographical data to develop a classification model. Using data mining, I isolate three characteristics that explain a high proportion of the appointments to cabinet over the period under examination. These variables are: i) having a legal qualification: ii) entering parliament at an early age: and iii) using abstract language. These three variables explain approximately 78% of cabinet appointments over the period under investigation. I argue that these variables are associated with cabinet appointment because they tap into a particular set of cognitive and behavioural characteristics that are beneficial in demonstrating cabinet potential. An important insight from the analysis is that, in selecting parliamentarians to serve in cabinet, personal factors are more important than representational factors.

The Effects of Political Uncertainty on Stock Prices

We show that political uncertainty depresses stock prices and increases volatility. Returns in the Australian stock market are lower and more volatile whenever the Australian federal parliament is in session. An analysis of implied volatilities, moreover, corroborates the volatility-inducing effects of parliamentary activity. These effects respond to the incumbent government’s partisan persuasion. The incumbency of right-leaning parties tends to considerably curtail the impact of political uncertainty on stock prices. Further, political effects appear sensitive to the electorate’s approval of the governing party, though the nature of this relation remains uncertain.

Legislative Recruitment and Models of Party Organisation: Evidence from Australia

This paper considers the relationship between the growing dominance of career politicians in the Australian federal legislature and models of party organisation. Using data on MPs in the Australian federal parliament, this study maps changes in models of party organisation to the occupational profiles of MPs between 1949 and 2007. The findings show a correspondence between the phenomenon of cartelisation and the appearance of legislators whose previous occupation was in the political sphere. The authors suggest that there is a relationship between different modes of party organisation and both the supply of candidates and the demand-side factors influencing party selectors. The paper concludes that theories of recruitment should include a greater emphasis on models of party organisation to explain better the uniformity of recruitment outcomes across advanced democracies.

The 2010 Amendments to the International Arbitration Act: A New Dawn for Australia?

On 6 July 2010 Royal Assent was given to amendments passed by the Australian Federal Parliament relating to the International Arbitration Act 1974 (Cth) (IAA). These were the first substantial changes to the IAA for over 20 years and consequently warrant close scrutiny. Along with some other innovations, they follow most of the 2006 revisions to the 1985 UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (Model Law), which has been particularly popular for Australasian jurisdictions updating their arbitration legislation. The amended IAA also provides the agreed core for Australian states and territories updating their Commercial Arbitration Acts (CAAs), although they adopt some variants given that their focus is on domestic arbitrations. This paper considers the amended IAA’s aims, writing requirements for arbitration agreements, enforcement of foreign awards, exclusion of the Model Law, interim measures, confidentiality, other substantive matters, and the temporal application of the 2010 amendments. It concludes that their scope is somewhat limited and unadventurous, but should significantly enhance the legal regime for international arbitration in Australia.

Healthcare Identifiers Legislation: A Whiff of Fourberie

The Healthcare Identifiers Bill 2010 (Cth), which will establish "the national e-health Healthcare Identifiers Service to provide that patients, healthcare providers and provider organisations can be consistently identified", is in the process of being enacted by the Australian Federal Parliament. The legislation will enable the government to assign to each "healthcare recipient" a 26-digit electronic "Healthcare Identifier", which will be accessible, with or without the recipient's consent, to a broad range of health care service providers as well as other entities. The individual Healthcare Identifier file will initially contain such identifying information as, where applicable, the Medicare number and/or the Veterans' Affairs number; name; address; gender; date of birth; and "the date of birth accuracy indicator" presumably birth certificate. However, since each "service" provided by a health care provider to a health care recipient will be automatically recorded on each individual's Healthcare Identifier file, in time these electronic files should contain a full record of such services or contacts. Moreover, the Healthcare Identifiers are considered a "key" to, or a "foundation stone" for, the implementation of the shared electronic health records scheme, because they will enable linkage with and retrieval of each patient's clinical records throughout the health care service system. However, there has been virtually no discussion about the legal, ethical and social implications of this legislation.