Australia does well in crises, but we need better approaches to slow-moving problems, says Lisa Paul

Investing in policy labs and innovation hubs could help Australian governments tackle other policy problems as well as we’ve responded to COVID-19. Lisa Paul and Ben Hubbard recently discussed the importance of war-gaming and institutional capability.

The coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated how effective Australian governments can be in a crisis, says former federal education secretary Lisa Paul — but non-urgent policy work is often overlooked.

“It’s really hard to do anything in the public sector outside the urgent quadrant,” she recently told a Melbourne School of Government seminar on crisis response and the public service.