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Strengthening Evidence-based Policy in the Australian Federation

Roundtable proceedings

The Productivity Commission's 2009 roundtable was organised around the topic Strengthening Evidence-Based Policy in the Australian Federation, and held at Old Parliament House in Canberra on 17-18 August 2009.

Participants included government officials, academics, consultants and representatives of non-government organisations. Keynote addresses were presented by Dr Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution, and Professor Jeffrey Smith of the University of Michigan.

The roundtable discussed the principles of the evidence-based policy movement and reviewed how well Australian use of evidence conformed to best practice. It then considered how to improve the availability of quality evidence, and reviewed possible institutional developments to embed good use of evidence more firmly into policy-making.

The roundtable proceedings are being published to enable a wider audience access to the information and insights that emerged. This volume includes papers by the speakers and a summary of the key points covered in the discussion sessions. A second volume is a background paper prepared by Commission staff and provided to roundtable participants.

The Commission is grateful to the speakers, discussants, participants and others whose contributions made the roundtable such a valuable exercise.

Download the proceedings

  • Volume 1 by chapters
  • Volume 2 by chapters

Session 1 Evidence-based policy: Its principles and development

Session 2 How robust is our evidence-based policy making?

Session 3 From rhetoric to practice how do we improve the availability and quality of evidence?

Session 4 Institutionalising an evidence-based approach how can an evaluation culture be embedded into policy-making

Session 5 What have we learned and where to from here?

Appendices

Printed copies

This publication is only available online.

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