Department of Agriculture and Water Resources …

1 policy innovationNew thinking . new skills . New Whitbread, Katie Linnane and Alistair DavidsonNOVEMBER 2017 Department of Agricultureand Water Resources Commonwealth of Australia 2017 Ownership of intellectual property rights Unless otherwise noted, copyright (and any other intellectual property rights, if any) in this publication is owned by the Commonwealth of Australia (referred to as the Commonwealth). Creative Commons licence All material in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Australia Licence, save for content supplied by third parties, logos and the Commonwealth Coat of Arms.

2 Creative Commons Attribution Australia Licence is a standard form licence agreement that allows you to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt this publication provided you attribute the work. A summary of the licence terms is available from The full licence terms are available from data This publication (and any material sourced from it) should be attributed as: Whitbread, S, Linnane, K & Davidson, A 2017, policy innovation : New thinking . new skills . New tools, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, Canberra, November. CC BY S BN: 978 -1-74323 -36 4 -1 IS SN: 14 47- 8358 Research report no.

3 Publication is available at Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES)Postal address GPO Box 858 Canberra ACT 2601 Switchboard +61 2 6272 3933 Email Web about the licence and any use of this document should be emailed to Australian Government acting through the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources , represented by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, has exercised due care and skill in preparing and compiling the information and data in this publication.

4 Notwithstanding, the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources , ABARES, its employees and advisers disclaim all liability, including for negligence and for any loss, damage, injury, expense or cost incurred by any person as a result of accessing, using or relying on information or data in this publication to the maximum extent permitted by The authors would like to thank all those who provided comments, suggestions and ideas for this report. While not possible to list everyone by name, we are particularly grateful to Helen Bailey, Dave Johnson, Tony Mahar, Alex Roberts, Neil Thompson and Ryan Young for their ongoing input and innovationNew thinking .

5 new skills . New vSummary 1 Introduction 41 Our future environment 52 Interpreting innovation for policy 73 Our approach 104 Findings

6 115 Discussion: unlocking innovation 40 Conclusion 44 Glossary 45 References 52 Figures1 Five innovation adoption segments 92 Three key themes for policy innovation findings 113 Features of tame and wicked problems 134 A range of future scenarios 155 The past, present and future affect decisions today 166 Example of a horizon-scanning process 317 Continuum of government coercion in policy instruments 368 Tools for the adaptive policymaker 399 OECD public sector innovation skills model 4210 Costs associated with agile approaches to delivering large and complex projects 43 Tables1 Behavioural economics tools 292 Examples of government crowdsourcing and tools 34 Boxes1 Further reading on contemporary pressures in Agriculture 62 Features of social complex systems 143 Corpus linguistics for analysing large textual

7 Datasets 184 Big data and digital humanities 195 Australian Taxation Office fix-it squads 216 Features of the narrative policy framework 237 WPR (what s the problem represented to be?) approach to policy analysis 248 innovation labs around the world 279 Behavioural economics in Australia 2810 Forecasting with Delphi in the cloud 3211 Mapat n crowd games provide important transport data in Mexico City 3412 The Murray Darling Basin Balanced Water Fund 37vPolicy innovationNew thinking . new skills . New operate in an increasingly complex and fast-paced world with new technologies creating multiple disruptions.

8 Citizens have access to information from many sources, are less trusting of institutions and are challenging government decision-making. We need to consider how the public sector can better manage its policy responsibilities in this Department of Agriculture and Water Resources seeks to be innovative and promote innovation across its mix of policy , program and regulatory work. We re using advanced intelligence and forecasting tools to boost our biosecurity preparedness and we re introducing new approaches to reduce the risk of pest and disease entry, such as the online Maritime Arrivals Reporting System.

9 We also encourage innovation in our portfolio industries by funding research through programs such as Farming Smarter . There is scope to innovate across the entire policy cycle. We will need to work in creative, collaborative and f lexible ways as we move into a world of big data and of more fragmented knowledge and perspectives across report brings together a set of innovative ideas that collectively offer new thinking , new skills and new tools for policy practitioners in my Department and across the wider public in policy and regulatory practice will help us continue to deliver outcomes for Australian Agriculture and the community.

10 This report reinforces the Department s commitment to innovation as a core capability for the QuinlivanSecretary Department of Agriculture and Water Resources1 policy innovationNew thinking . new skills . New operating environments of governments and their stakeholders are changing rapidly. This threatens to make existing policy practices outdated. Emerging technologies, f luid political preferences and shifting societal attitudes including a declining level of trust in public institutions are transforming our world. Ever greater change and a less predictable future create an increasingly complex and highly contested public policy landscape.