This book contributes to and expands on the major international Comparative Policy Agendas
Project. It sets the project in context and provides a comprehensive assessment of the
changing policy agenda in Australia over a forty-year period using a unique systematic dataset
of governor-general speeches legislation and parliamentary questions and then mapping these
on to media coverage and what the public believes (according to poll evidence) government
should be concentrating upon. The book answers some important questions in political science:
what are the most important legislative priorities for government over time? Does the
government follow talk with action? Does government attend to the issues the public identifies
as most important? And how does media attention follow the policy agenda? The authors deploy
their unique dataset to provide a new and exciting perspective on the nature of Australian
public policy and the Comparative Policy Agendas Project more broadly.
