In the present era of evidence-based policy making in Indigenous affairs, where the monitoring and closure of socioeconomic gaps dominates the federal agenda, data have become paramount. Yet with regard to one of the cornerstones of the Labor government's 'Closing the Gaps' initiative-Indigenous education-the reliability of the evidence base has been repeatedly called into question...

Despite several years of reform since 2008, the institutional design for national security policy-making as a whole remains dominated by centralisation and limited coordination. The paper identifies three broad recommendations for building a more integrated policy framework: (1) making networks the main institutional design feature, not departments; (2) placing the functions of the National Security...

The reforms of the 1980s and 90s have worked their way through our economy and our society. We have enjoyed their benefits, but the jump in living standards they enabled has now faded from memory. This has been replaced by a dangerous complacency which holds that future reform to sustain living standards is no longer...

Governance – the manner in which something is governed or influenced (Oxford English Dictionary) – is about how society organises itself to achieve its goals. Governments play a major role, but many people and organisations outside government are involved. Natural resource management (NRM) governance is about the mechanisms all these people and organisations use to...

While recognising that the current compliance system is still evolving, this report identifies among its strengths the greater flexibility it gives providers, the improved structure of sanctions and the value of the Contact Request option. As a background to its conclusions and recommendations, the Review noted that the new compliance system remained in an evolutionary...