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27 February 2024
While the political and policy focus has rightly been on regulating artificial intelligence, we also need to plan now to harness AI’s power as a policymaking tool – especially, its capacity to model outcomes in complex systems.
José-Miguel Bello y Villarino
7 February 2024
Simple quantitative metrics don’t do justice to the breadth and complexity of human experience. Researchers and policymakers can benefit from frameworks implementing a nested relationship between data and lived experiences, metrics and relational processes.
Juliet Bennett
2 February 2024
As governments look to reform our social services systems, they must tap into the transformative power of relationships.
Cliff Eberly and Wenqian Gan
Explore recent articles
10 October 2023
Skills mismatches will grow due to climate change and its economic fallout. Microcredentials can enable rapid and inclusive re-skilling while offering universities an opportunity to re-invent their mission in a “climate changed” world.
Jack Isherwood
28 September 2023
Australia’s referendum on the Voice has highlighted the need for better regulation of social media platforms to prevent falsehoods corroding our democratic discourse.
Alice Dawkins & Rys Farthing
25 September 2023
Revenue-contingent loans for research-based start-ups could provide a sustainable model for boosting Australia’s R&D output.
Ken Baldwin, Bruce Chapman & Glenn Withers
18 September 2023
A well-informed policy debate around legalisation should consider evidence from around the world on regulatory options for the supply, retail and consumption of currently illicit drugs.
Paul Kelaita & Alison Ritter
4 September 2023
The path to optimal collaboration between policymakers and researchers is long and winding – but innovative new institutions are helping accelerate the journey.
Peter Shergold
25 August 2023
Australia has joined the race to regulate AI – but we aren’t paying enough attention to the gender-related challenges generated by these systems. Here’s how we can start to fix that.
Ramona Vijeyarasa
The five building blocks that nurtured Sharee’s Strong Spirit
Putting First Nations people in the driver’s seat of community development isn’t just the right thing to do – it delivers better outcomes too.
Mixed messages: policy considerations for the growing use of illicit substances as therapeutic agents in Australia
Policymakers should draw on Australian and international lessons from prescribing cannabis to implement effective regulation for the medicinal use of MDMA and psilocybin.
Place-based approaches can help industrial regions decarbonise quicker – here’s how
Decarbonising Australia’s industrial sector will be essential for Australia to reach net zero. The Australian Government can set the right policy signals with ambitious long-term goals to diversify economically in new clean industries and coordinate investment in specific locations.
The right settings for migrant settlement in regional Australia
Better coordination across all three levels of government and strategic investments in migrant services can boost migrant settlement in regional areas – helping Australians new and old.
Prioritising the rights and best interests of children in law reform
Queensland’s new bail laws will infringe on the human rights of children. A better approach that understands the needs of vulnerable children is needed.
Upstream and downstream strategies to close the gap in criminal justice
It’s 32 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. While progress has been slow – and in some cases retrograde – there is a path to better outcomes for Indigenous people if they are empowered to lead policy responses.
Five research and policy questions to improve societal health and break cycles of disadvantage
How to disrupt policy and enable collective intelligence – for people and place – by asking the questions that matter most.
Collective voices and coordinated action: how multi-agency collaborations can help tackle modern slavery
Modern slavery is a wicked problem for Australia—but effective coordination of the actors involved in prevention, law enforcement and victim protection can enable a more effective response.
Tobacco, gambling, now alcohol: why Australia needs mandated alcohol warnings
The harms and costs of alcohol to Australia are clear. Government needs to mandate effective messaging around alcohol consumption.
The Policymaker in 2022: our most-read articles
It’s been a big first year for The Policymaker—here are our top five most-read articles for 2022.
