Public policy failures are costly, they lead to reputational damage and have major risks and impacts on human life, the environment and the economy. Today’s disrupted and complex climate requires a renewed focus on designing and developing evidence-based public policy that drives positive impacts and outcomes.

Despite this, analysis in recent years shows Australia’s Government failing to undertake best practice policymaking due to a reactive and ad-hoc approach that’s not built on a solid foundation and is influenced by short term political gain, leading to poor policy quality, policy failure and the loss of confidence in public institutions.

These findings come from the Institute of Public Affairs who in 2019 analysed 20 public policies and found both state and federal governments failing to apply best practice. Only 7 of the 20 policies assessed met the recommended standards, the other 13 policies failed the test.

The Public Policy Design and Development Summit is designed to help policy makers embrace best practice, innovation, technology and collaboration to design evidence-based and user centric public policy. Senior policymakers and strategists from across Australia’s Government will gather to share practical insights and case-studies into the ways their departments and agencies are working towards designing and developing evidence-based user centric public policy.