On 1 November 2016, the workshop ‘How Australians Should Live: Historical Perspectives on Current Policy Challenges’ was held at Australian National University. This event was a research workshop convened by the Research School of Social Sciences, the Australian Policy History Network and the Museum of Australian Democracy. A Storify collating the tweets from the day is now available to view.

The workshop was led by Frank Bongiorno, Nicholas Brown, Bruce Chapman, David Lowe, Meredith Edwards, Stuart Macintyre, Sean Scalmer and John Uhr.

A diverse range of topics were presented at the workshop:

Emily Millane – Politics of Tax Reform in Australia

Dan Hannington-Pinto – Union Engagement With and Influence Over Policy Debates From the Mid-1960s

Will Peart – Ideas Shaping Policy and Laws for the “Disposal of Crown Land” in Victoria in the 1860s and 1870s

Liam Byrne – Political Culture of the Australian Labor Party in Victoria 1901 and 1921

Carla Pascoe – Changing Policy Regarding and Experience of Motherhood in Australia Since 1945

Kylie Rippon – Aboriginal Acts and their Effects on Aboriginal Parenting 1877 to 1920

Yolanda Robinson – The Recent History of Community-based Approaches to Preventing Crime in Queensland

David Roth – Life, Death and Release at Callan Park Hospital for the Insane

Rebecca Cairns – “Australia-Asia” Policy and a History of the Curricular Present

Anna Kent – Influence of Education Programs on Australia-Indonesia Relations

Nicholas Ferns – Putting Theory into Practice: Development and Australian Economic Assistance to Papua New Guinea and Southeast Asia

Daniel May – Political and Cultural Influence of Understandings of Indigenous Fire-use in Australia