The link between IP and poverty may not be obvious, but as Nobel Laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz has pointed out, ‘societal inequality was a result not just of the laws of economics, but also of how we shape the economy - through politics, including through almost every aspect of our legal system’. Stiglitz is concerned that ‘our intellectual property regime… contributes needlessly to the gravest form of inequality.’ He maintains: ‘The right to life should not be contingent on the ability to pay.’ In Australian Federal politics, there have been significant debates about intellectual property in the fields of information technology, biotechnology, health-care, and climate change.