By Professor Catherine Althaus, UNSW Canberra and Co-Author The Australian Policy Handbook
Something has shifted in the world. We can all feel it.
The rules-based international order that shaped decades of diplomacy, trade and cooperation is disintegrating. Geopolitical tensions that once felt distant now land on our desks. We are confronted by volatile budget pressures, supply chain disruptions, migration movements, cost of living squeezes and the accelerating pace of decisions that used to have the luxury of time. Meanwhile, public trust in institutions is harder to earn and easier to lose. The problems we face like climate, housing, aged care, AI transformation don't fit neatly into solo portfolios or single terms of government.
This is precisely the moment when rigorous, thoughtful, evidence-informed policymaking matters most. Not less. More.
A 30-Year Commitment to Getting It Right
The Australian Policy Handbook is soon to turn 30. In that time, more than 35,000 copies have found their way into the hands of public servants, students, ministers' offices, and policy practitioners across this country. That's not a publishing statistic. That's a community of practice.
We are one of very few jurisdictions in the world with a sustained, consolidated, and continuously updated resource dedicated to the craft of policymaking. That is something worth pausing on. Because it reflects something real about Australian public servants: we are a pragmatic bunch, but we are focused on impact and good process. We want to know what works. We want to bridge theory and practice. And we take seriously the idea that government exists to improve the lives of the people it serves.
The policymaking cycle – from agenda-setting and analysis through to implementation and evaluation – is not a bureaucratic formality. It is a discipline. A way of thinking and acting. A shared language that lets us move from problem or opportunity to solution with clarity, rigour, and accountability. In a world that is drifting from that rigour, holding the line matters.
Collaboration is the capability we need now
Here's what 30 years of policy experience teaches you: the most wicked problems are never solved alone. They are worked through; in co-design and partnership, across portfolio boundaries, and with communities who live the consequences of our decisions and processes every day.
That's why the collapse of multilateral cooperation internationally makes domestic policy craft even more critical. When the world outside is less predictable, the quality of what we build inside our own systems becomes a critical anchor. And that anchor holds only when we collaborate and coordinate well; across agencies, across levels of government, and across the rich diversity of perspectives that make Australian democracy genuinely representative.
This includes – and I say this with conviction – the extraordinary opportunity we have in this part of the world to draw on Indigenous knowledge systems. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been navigating complex, long-horizon challenges in this country for over 60,000 years. Their governance traditions, their relational ways of knowing, and their understanding of country as a system offer genuine insight for contemporary policymakers. This is not sentiment. It is strategic intelligence waiting to be better integrated into how we think about evidence, consultation, and long-term outcomes. The Priority Reforms of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap makes this the business of every single public servant.
Policy craft Is a living practice
The Australian Policy Handbook has never claimed to be perfect, descriptively accurate, or have all the answers. Just like the London tubemap is not accurate but gets us from points A to B, so too does the policy cycle lying at the heart of the Handbook exist as a valuable heuristic tool. What it offers is a framework for asking better questions; rigorously, honestly, and with the people affected at the centre.
As APS professionals, you carry that tradition every time you pick up a brief, run a consultation, or interrogate the assumptions behind a policy proposal. The work you do is consequential. Australians deserve public services that are thoughtful, responsive, and built on the wisest and most robust available evidence and judgment.
The world may be cut adrift. But we don't have to be. We have the tools, the history, and the community of practice to hold steady, and to keep improving.
That's what the policy cycle is for. That's what craft is for.
That's what you're for.