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By Narayan Khanal, Global Voices National Scholar, Y20, 2022 Narayan is a Global Voices National Scholar studying a Doctor of Medicine at the University of Wollongong. His policy paper focuses on Engaging Australia’s youth in democracy, policy, and decision-making processes. Executive Summary Despite Australia’s large youth population, young people’s ability to be part of decision-making processes and influence policy landscape remains low. It is important that young people are engaged in civic debates and part of the solution for emerging challenges through leadership and policy making experience, as well as civic engagement, to future proof Australia’s policies and leadership. This would not only help develop young people’s potential, but also enhance democracy and build trust amongst young people in democratic processes. This policy paper aims to provide recommendations to help broaden Australia’s engagement with young people in policy and decision-making processes. It recommends establishment of a federally funded national youth advisory body under the minister for youth and introduction of an electoral amendments bill to lower Australia’s voting age to 16 to enhance youth engagement in politics.

By Amber Anderson, Global Voices National Scholar, Y20, 2022 Amber is a Global Voices National Scholar. Her policy paper focuses on Ensuring secure employment for all young Australians. Executive Summary Youth access to secure employment is crucial for economic resilience, wellbeing, and life opportunities. However, not all Australian youth can gain secure employment following education or training. To ensure all young Australians have access to secure employment, this paper recommends: (1) Improving the marketing and consultation processes of existing initiatives that aim to improve youth employment to address young people lacking awareness of existing services that aim to increase youth access to secure employment (2) Ensuring youth are employable in future workplaces by providing upskilling courses and ensuring education institutions are matching employers’ needs.

By Hayley Payne, Griffith University, WHA, 2022 Hayley is studying a Master of Global Development, Climate Change and Disaster Resilience at Griffith University. Her policy paper focuses on Health Preparedness for Disasters and Crises in a Changing Climate. Executive Summary As the climate crisis escalates, its impacts on human health are increasingly evident. Australia is a country prone to climate and weather-related hazards and without early interventions to prepare for its impacts, climate change is set to cause significant pressure on Australia’s healthcare system. To address this growing issue, a whole-of-society approach is required to ensure that individuals and communities understand the risk of and are more resilient to climate health implications during a disaster or crisis. The paper will provide two key recommendations to address this problem. Develop national guidelines on public health preparedness community engagement and messaging that consider regional variations and existing health inequalities. Create diversified and engaging participatory community engagement programs focused on health preparedness for disasters and crises. The recommendations aim to achieve an increase in public health awareness and preparedness of the impacts of disaster and crisis events. They also aim to provide communities with an understanding of potential climate impacts on their health and wellbeing.

By Effie Tan, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, WHA, 2022 Effie is an employee at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Her policy paper focuses on Shopping at “Medical Malls” for a Modern Healthcare Experience. Executive Summary Despite having universal healthcare, many Australians miss out on high quality care because of cost barriers and the fragmented nature of the health system. Delayed or missed care not only increases the downstream burden on the health system but also hinders labour productivity, hence economic growth. To improve accessibility and affordability of healthcare, Australians need a holistic approach to healthcare delivery that addresses onthe-ground barriers that prevent access. This paper recommends trialling ‘medical malls’ in Australia to increase local accessibility of primary and specialist care by diversifying how, where, and by whom healthcare is provided.

By Afeeya Akhand, The University of Sydney, , IMF and World Bank Annual Summit, 2022 Afeeya is studying a Master of International Security at the University of Sydney. Her policy paper focuses on Increasing Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Leadership in the Australian Public Service. Executive Summary As the sector serving the public interest, the Australian Public Service (APS) should reflect the broader community including Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Australians. 1 However, CALD employees are overrepresented at lower APS classification levels and underrepresented at higher levels including in the Senior Executive Service (SES). CALD leadership brings numerous benefits to the APS, including increased intercultural and linguistic expertise and enhanced retention of CALD staff. Therefore, this policy paper makes two recommendations to further CALD leadership within the SES Band level. First, a whole-of-APS CALD target for SES roles should be implemented, and second, an agency level sponsorship program for high-performing Executive Level (EL) staff from CALD backgrounds should be created.

By Caroline Ng, University of New South Wales, IMF and World Bank Annual Summit, 2022 Caroline is studying a Bachelor of Information Systems (Honours) at UNSW. Her policy paper focuses on Addressing Australia’s cyber security worker shortage. Executive Summary The cyber security sector is a critical enabler of Australia’s digital revolution as cyber crime and a loss of trust by citizens could impede Australia’s digitalisation. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a significant increase in cyber crime and large-scale data breaches including the Optus and Medi Bank data breaches (Mason, 2022). However, Australia faces a shortage of job-ready cyber security workers, which led to an estimated loss of $405 million in revenue and wages due to unfilled cyber security job vacancies in 2017 (AustCyber, 2019). The cyber security skills shortage is forecast to hit 30,000 unfilled positions across Australia over the next four years (Braue, 2022). Failure to address this shortage may result in lower revenue growth in the Australian economy. For example, a lack of cyber security workers may result in companies being more susceptible to security breaches, which would negatively impact consumer and business confidence (AustCyber, 2019). Therefore, this paper proposes three key policy recommendations to address Australia’s cyber security worker shortage.

By Marko Golubovac, University of Melbourne, IMF and World Bank Annual Summit, 2022 Marco studied at the University of Melbourne in the Faculty of Business and Economics. His policy paper focuses on “No one wants to be a refugee”: examining improvements in programs and frameworks for long-term climate change-induced migration in Australia Executive Summary This paper proposes a comprehensive buddy program be implemented in Australia, modelled after the Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Program (CRISP). Utilising both state and federal funding, the program aims to match refugees from all ages and backgrounds with volunteers from their local host community to build engagement and trust. The program should be driven by a set of training, matching, reporting and community engagement practices that empower refugees with the skills and confidence to achieve positive employment and community integration outcomes. Secondly, this paper outlines the arguments for the introduction of a framework to recognise climate catastrophe asylum seekers in Australia. Currently, the term ‘climate refugee’ is not a recognised condition of seeking asylum (Kelly, 2016) and climate refugees do not face the same protections as other refugees and asylum seekers (Thomson, 2019). Australian communities and policy makers must prepare for a future of increased climate catastrophes and displaced persons, including domestically.

By Mariam Abouelnasr, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, IMF, 2022 Mariam was supported by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Scholar. Her policy paper focuses on Global Approaches to Domestic Problems: Addressing the Australian Skills Shortage through the Education Pipeline Executive Summary Australia is facing an enduring skills shortage. While some industries are particularly hard-hit, and struggling to fill job vacancies, this is an economy-wide problem exacerbated by the pandemic’s halt to skilled migration, declining numbers of Vocational and Educational Training (VET) completions and low tech capability in Australian graduates. On a company level, job vacancies can be expensive to fill, as higher salaries and sign-on bonuses are being offered to incentivise new talent to sign contracts. On an economy-wide level, unfilled vacancies stagnate productivity and economic growth. They also exacerbate supply chain issues, where a lack of workers reduces the volume of product movement, increasing supply shortages and putting upwards pressure on inflation.1 This paper recommends that the skills shortage is addressed through the education pipeline, by repurposing the existing Government program, the New Colombo Plan (NCP). The NCP is run by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and facilitates study abroad opportunities in the Indo-Pacific region for Australian university students. This paper identifies this program as a pathway to increasing the skills the Australian economy is currently lacking. The paper makes three recommendations: Expand the NCP to support VET students to study abroad Connect VET and Higher Education NCP scholars with internship opportunities at home Increase the number of women in STEM-related NCP programs Education is at the core of Australian skills development, and study abroad can be better leveraged to address gaps in the labour market.

By Andrew Jenkins, Curtin University, IMF, 2022 Andrew was supported by Curtin University. His policy paper From Vulnerability to Resilience: A Strategic Plan for Debt Management and Economic Growth in Australia. Executive Summary The outbreak of COVID-19 and the related stimulus packages by governments saw fiscal spending reach unprecedented levels. Global debt is now reaching $300 trillion, which was 256% of global GDP in 2020 (World Economic Forum 2022). Hysteresis from these stimulus packages will likely have a choke hold on economies for years to come leaving us less economically prepared for future events. Despite this, fiscal stimuli will still be an essential aspect of modern economies looking to address long term structural changes such as climate change, aging populations, digitalisation, automation, and rising inequality (OECD 2021). This paper aims to provide two policy recommendations that can be implemented in Australia to reduce the rising vulnerability of government debt whilst also boosting long term, sustainable economic growth. Firstly, the creation of a Debt Sustainability Framework (DSF) which will identify a set of guidelines to promote sustainable borrowing, based on factors such as economic growth, inflation, and interest rates. The framework will provide a roadmap for the Australian Government to manage fiscal borrowing, by setting out targets, limits, and procedures. The framework will also establish mechanisms for monitoring and assessing the sustainability of debt over time. Secondly, this paper will recommend the establishment of the National Investment Plan for Super (NIPS), which will provide tax incentives for superannuation funds to invest in Australia’s future. This will reduce the strain that sectors such as healthcare, education, and the green energy transition have on current on budget deficits.

By Daniel Pham, RMIT University, IMF, 2022 Daniel attended RMIT University. His policy paper focuses on Reforming Australia’s income tax system to reduce income inequality Executive Summary Rising income inequality presents a pressing challenge in Australia, where income distribution remains uneven and disproportionately benefiting the highest earners, highlighting the unfairness of the current income tax system. This paper proposes policies to ensure that high-income individuals1 pay their fair share of taxes2 to generate revenue for the government to spend on crucial public services and programs. Implementation of proposed recommendations would reduce income inequality and foster more equitable distribution of opportunities and prosperity for all Australians.

By Hannah Rutherford, RMIT University, CSW, 2022 Hannah is studying a Bachelor of Environment and Society, Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University. Her policy paper focuses on Beyond the Crisis-Response: Preventing Young Australian Women’s Pathways into Homelessness. Executive Summary A complex mix of personal and structural preconditions are causing young Australian women to enter homelessness at a concerning rate. Recent Australian research into early-intervention methods has shown promising outcomes in addressing this issue. Despite the international attention of these positive results, Australia’s dominant crisis-oriented model remains. Academics and social-service practitioners alike call for greater collaboration between secondary schools and youth services, to effectively deliver best-practice supports to vulnerable young women before they reach a crisis point. As such, this paper recommends a creative integration of existing youth organisations and programs, with the aim to pilot a hybrid mentorship with young women involved in YMCA Victoria’s youth services.

By Sabina Patawaran, University of Sydney, CSW, 2022 Sabina studies at the University of Sydney. Her policy paper focuses on We’re All Gonna Make It: Accounting for the Intersection of Sex and Race in the Governance of Emerging Technologies Executive Summary Technology governance has become a pressing issue for policymakers worldwide as emerging technologies have led to various societal harms like the amplification of violence. Moreover, these harms disproportionately impact women of colour (United Nations Human Rights Council [UNHRC] 2020). In response, this paper recommends a regulatory sandbox that is inclusive of women of colour within its processes, and intersectional data collection and analysis on a national level. Such measures can help influence technological advancement towards a more equitable direction, and address the systemic barriers of racism and sexism within policymaking (Beauregard, Holman & Sheppard 2022; Maturi & Munro 2023).