This brief sets out the case for making public policy evaluations public. It first reviews the various challenges associated with impact evaluations, paying particular attention to the unique hurdles involved in evaluating Indigenous policy. Lessons learned from clinical trials registries in medical research are then used to argue that Australian economic and social policy evaluations...

The Northern Territory National Emergency Response Intervention (the Intervention) of 2007 was a bold experiment by the Howard Government. The Intervention was developed quickly without comprehensive policy development based on evidence or consultation. During its five-year statutory life (ending August 2012), the absence of coherent policy logic has seen the Intervention fundamentally reframed by the...

In the decade and a half since the Productivity Commission was formally established, it has completed 110 inquiries and other commissioned studies and made some 1500 policy recommendations to governments. All of these recommendations were made because the Commission judged that their implementation would enhance Australians’ living standards and quality of life. In many cases...

This project is a pilot study to determine whether councils have the necessary data and information to meaningfully contribute to this process. The State of the Assets report aims to provide technical underpinning to the broader Roads to Recovery (R2R) initiative. This report represents the outcome from the first phase of the ALGA examination of...

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has been touted as the biggest and most expensive social reform since Medicare. The Productivity Commission initially estimated that the NDIS would provide disability care and support services to 411,000 people at a cost of $13.5 billion (gross) every year. However, subsequent estimates have revised the cost of the...