For most of his life Ian McAuley has lived and breathed public policy. He has been an engineer in a manufacturing firm (in the days when we had a home-grown manufacturing sector), a trade commissioner, a policy analyst and a manager in the federal Department of Industry, and more recently a lecturer in Public Sector Financial Management at the University of Canberra. He has worked on consultancies for Australian and foreign governments and for international…

Miriam Lyons is an Australian policy analyst, writer and commentator. She was co-founder and executive director of the Centre for Policy Development, a public-interest think-tank. She has been a regular guest on the ABC shows Q&A and The Drum, has contributed to several media outlets and co-edited the books Pushing Our Luck and More Than Luck. Earlier roles include policy editing for New Matilda, researching freedom of speech in East Timor, and…