Government is doing this wrong

I think we’re still designing policy for a world that doesn’t exist anymore.

Last week I was in Canberra for the OpenFisca and Policy Innovation Conference, right after Government Innovation Week in Melbourne. Two very different conferences… and honestly, it felt like they were talking about two completely different realities.

At OpenFisca, the conversation went deeper. Less about “what’s new” More about “why isn’t this working?”

This video is my attempt to make sense of that. In it, I explore:

• Why policy isn’t really a product anymore (it’s something you’re constantly managing)
• How tools like Rules as Code, digital twins, and synthetic data are starting to change the game 
• Why government might be losing its own institutional memory and the question I can’t shake: as AI becomes more central… what do we choose to keep human?

It feels like we’re in an in-between moment. The old way isn’t holding up. The new way isn’t fully formed. And we’re kind of stitching it together as we go.

Curious how this is showing up where you are.