This paper examines democracy as a resilient system, emphasising the role of applied analysis in shaping effective policy and programs, particularly in Australia. It proposes a practical agenda centred on three core strengthening flows of democratic resilience: trusted institutions, credible information and social inclusion.

Randomised trials are a powerful tool for estimating the ‘causal effects’ of a program or policy. This report takes stock of the published randomised policy trials that have been conducted in Australia, examines the ethics and cultural appropriateness of randomised trials, and discusses future directions for randomised policy trials in Australia.

This report reflects a whole-of-government effort to assess how evaluation is currently used to determine what works, for whom, and why. Findings show promising signs of increased evaluation efforts across the Australian Government. However, further work is needed to ensure evaluation practices are consistent, high‑quality and routinely used to inform policy design and delivery.

This report reviews the first four years of Victoria's Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017, finding it is generally operating safely and as intended. The report also identifies areas for improvement, including enhancing community awareness, supporting the workforce and ensuring equitable access, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and multicultural communities.

This assessment tool supports the measurement of the quality of policymaking processes – both existing and planned – across sectors. It provides a flexible framework for rating public policy processes using information available in the public domain. The framework's objective is to simplify the path towards best practice, evidence-informed policy.