CEDA's independence and diverse membership makes us unique in the Australian policy landscape, and enables us to bring together and harness the insights and ideas of a broad cross-section of our society and economy.
CEDA’s Public Interest Technology program focuses on how emerging technologies can be designed, developed and used in the public interest.
How we advance and adopt technology and the use of data will fundamentally shape Australia’s economic and social development. Data and emerging technologies, used wisely and in the public interest, have the potential to deliver significant benefits.
This program of work aligns with CEDA's PIT Member Advisory Committee, that brings together technologists, policy makers and business to further development, take-up and use of technology and data in a way that enables a dynamic economy and maximises individual and community choice, opportunity and wellbeing.
Following the inaugural CEDA PIT forum held in 2020, CEDA is looking to lead a national discussion on what public interest technology means in practice and how to embed this approach to emerging tech.
Drawing on insights from the forum, our priorities include: building awareness of the importance of digital ethics and ethics in practice, regulation and regulatory frameworks for emerging tech, demystifying tech, building tech and public interest awareness and capability.
Technology and trust: Priorities for a reimagined economy led by technology
The first CEDA report on Public Interest Technology priorities for government surveys the issues with Australia's current approach to technology and the digital economy. The report recommends appointing a Chief Technologist and committing to transparent and independent technology assessments to help Australia become a leading digital nation. Read the report here.
AI Principles to Practice
Artificial intelligence has evolved quickly and today presents incredible opportunities for organisations to gain deeper insights, drive productivity and reimagine services delivered to customers.
The adoption of AI also presents challenges for organisations in responding to concerns relating to this new technology, including consumer privacy and algorithmic bias issues.
In 2021-22, CEDA will convene a series of workshops to examine the practical ways in which high-level AI principles are being translated at the organisational level.
In a collaborative Chatham House-style setting, CEDA will bring together senior stakeholders to examine:
Findings from these workshops will feed into CEDA’s PIT program and broader research and policy agenda in 2021-22.
PIT Member Advisory Committee:
Foundation partners:
CEDA’s PIT program is supported by our Foundation Partners: Google, IBM and KPMG and guided by the PIT Member Advisory Committee (MAC).
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CEDA’s research on migration seeks to promote greater transparency of Australia’s migration system, establish a greater understanding of the economic impacts of migration and recommend policy settings that promote a more efficient migration system that addresses demographic challenges and skills needs.
In March 2021 CEDA released A good match: Optimising Australia's permanent skilled migration. This major report explores the mismatch in Australia's permanent skilled migration system, finding nearly a quarter of permanent skilled migrants in Australia are working in a job beneath their skill level. This builds on our past analysis including Temporary migration in Australia (2019) and Migration – the skills mismatch.
You can read CEDA's recent submission to Federal Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on skilled migration here. It includes five recommendations based on our research in this space.
Business dynamism is critical for a successful economy. A dynamic economy is one in which businesses are continually starting and failing, expanding and contracting.
Dynamism enables innovation, risk-taking, entrepreneurship and skills development. These are the key ingredients to our competitiveness as a nation, and our ability to expand existing industries and develop new industries on the world stage, in turn boosting wages and living standards.
Since the early 2000s, business dynamism has fallen in many advanced economies. Fewer people are starting new businesses, fewer people are switching jobs, and resources are slower to move from low-performing to high-performing firms.
There are worrying signs that the Australian economy has become less dynamic and competitive across these areas and a broader range of indicators, such as slow growth in our start-up sector, weak private sector investment and declining business expenditure on R&D. All of this has contributed to Australians’ flatlining incomes in recent years.
As a member-based think-tank, CEDA is well placed to leverage the insights of members in its business dynamism and competitiveness research. This year, working with members across business, higher education and government, CEDA will explore:
1. The practices within companies and management that are holding back dynamism – a much neglected area of research in Australia compared to other advanced economies.
2. How Australia can lift collaboration between universities, businesses and government to better diffuse and commercialise our world class research and knowledge.
Read an article from CEDA Senior Economist Melissa Wilson on why improving business dynamism in Australia is crucial to driving our international competitiveness.
CEDA also recently made a submission on this topic to the Federal Government University Research Commercialisation Scheme scoping expert panel. You can read the submission here.
In 2022, CEDA’s work continues in human services to identify practical solutions to deliver better human services for Australians.
Duty of care: Meeting the aged care workforce challenge, unpacks the worker shortage facing the Australian aged care sector and proposes a series of innovative solutions.
Disrupting Disadvantage Part 2 focuses on data sharing and how it can improve service delivery, government accountability, inform policy development and empower citizens by improving the accessibility of healthcare, disability care, housing and crisis services.
Our team of economists are ready to brief your organisation on the short-term economic outlook and the long-term trends that will drive business in the years ahead, and distil its significance for your industry.
Our economic briefings bring you the latest analysis, findings and insights from the CEDA research team, as the country moves out of the recession and through recovery.
Delivered virtually or in person, CEDA’s program of economic briefings are exclusive to members. In addition to analysis on the broader economic outlook, CEDA also offers more tailored briefings to members at an additional charge. Tailored economic briefings focus on specific areas of policy, industries, regions and demographic cohorts and are customised to suit your specific needs.
Foundational research document: Connecting people with progress
In November 2018, CEDA released Connecting people with progress: securing future economic development which explores how we can realise better social and economic outcomes for Australians in the decades to come. This document underpins CEDA’s current research focus on securing future progress that is tangible and relatable to the Australian community.
This report detailed critical policy priorities for economic development and also detailed where progress has been delivered and has fallen short.
We want to hear the perspective and insights of our members.
Get in touch with our research team about the role you can play in our research agenda as we deliver on our purpose: identifying policy issues that matter for Australia’s future and pursuing solutions that deliver better economic and social outcomes for the greater good