The NSW Government’s first digital strategy spoke of the need for government to be ‘digital by design’ and ‘digital by default'. This report is about the shift toward machine technologies, a term used for the broad range of digital and data enabled systems and processes that are, or might in future, be used to guide...

In this report, the IPA's Morgan Begg argues that the Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Pandemic Management) Bill 2021, introduced by the Andrews Government into the Victorian Legislative Assembly on 26 October, is a demand for power that is unprecedented in Australia’s peacetime history.

Through a broad overview of what works and what doesn’t and three detailed case studies dealing with aged care, COVID responses and the Victorian roads maintenance sector, this report shows that the Australian experience of privatisation, outsourcing and contracting of essential government services and Public Private Partnerships over three decades has been decidedly mixed.

This position paper argues that in order to create fit-for-purpose permanent pandemic legislation in Victoria, a suite of interconnected and mutually-reinforcing amendments are required.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused Australia’s first recession in a generation. In Victoria, the second wave of COVID-19 infections and subsequent extended stay-at-home orders, and other public health restrictions needed to actively suppress the virus, has extended that economic downturn longer than other States and Territories.