Australian Policy and History

The Australian Policy and History (APH) network seeks to inject historical knowledge into the Australian policy debate. APH is a partnership between the Contemporary Histories Research Group at Deakin University and the Australian National University. The network was co-founded in 2010 by Professor David Lowe at Deakin University, Professor Melanie Oppenheimer, now at Flinders University, Zoe Pollock of the History Council of New South Wales, and Dr Nicholas Brown from the Australian National University (ANU).

We collaborate with the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, and with our international counterparts, such as History and Policy in the UK and the National History Center  in the USA. We have workshops planned with all these partners in the next few months.

APH publishes 800-word opinion pieces, 2000-word essays and profiles of important political and policy players in our national history.  We are introducing a new series of ‘Policy Briefs’, where we invite historians to prepare a public service-style briefing note on a contemporary policy issue, based on their historical expertise.

As we seek to expand our output and our impact on the policy debate, we would love to have your contributions. If you are interested in writing about a contemporary policy issue using the benefit of your historical knowledge, or in contributing in any other way, please contact Carolyn Holbrook on carolyn.holbrook@deakin.edu.au.