Making Progress: How good policy happens
Jenny Macklin with Joel Deane
“Along with its focus on policy, the element of this absorbing book that sets it apart from the usual political memoir is Macklin’s insistence on sharing the credit for her many achievements ... The result is a book that may lack the typical narrative of the hero’s journey expected of a political memoir, but which is, as a result, infinitely more illuminating about the workings of parliament and just how hard it is to achieve meaningful, lasting reform. It is also a very useful book, one that should be on the desk of every parliamentarian and all their staff as they start the work of the forty-eighth parliament of Australia.”
“Jenny Macklin had a reputation for placing the largest coffee orders in Parliament, and for driving much of Labor’s social policy agenda when it was last in government. The Labor luminary touches on keeping her staff caffeinated in her new book, but mostly it’s a guide on how to make policy that sticks. Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s new frontbench would do well to go snap up the half-dozen copies in the Parliament House shop. It also contains plenty of lessons the Government should heed.”
“Macklin was instrumental in delivering significant policy reform in Australia ... [She] is now looking to those just elected to use their power, however fleeting it might be, to harness the political will to tackle generational issues such as climate change, the housing crisis and rising inequality. She’s just published a book, Making Progress: How Good Policy Happens. It is part memoir of her time in politics and part field guide to others ambitious for change.”
“Macklin has written a book that explores the art of policymaking. It’s an area she’s more than familiar with. Macklin was instrumental in the design and implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, she also oversaw the introduction of Australia’s first national paid parental leave scheme, played a pivotal role in the 2008 national apology to the Stolen Generations, and led the Closing the Gap framework aimed at reducing disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in health, education, and employment.”
Is big policy reform still possible? Does Australia have the political will to tackle generational issues such as climate change, the housing crisis, rising inequality and Closing the Gap?
Legendary Labor policymaker Jenny Macklin believes that if Australia wants to remain prosperous and fair, big policy reform is not just possible, it's essential.
Making Progress takes us into the policy engine room and details how Macklin went about developing transformational initiatives such as the Apology to the Stolen Generations, paid parental leave and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, as well as delivering pension reforms that lifted one million Australians out of poverty. She explains how she became a policy wonk, and interviews key policymakers such as Julia Gillard, Brian Howe, Bill Kelty, Tanya Plibersek and Ross Garnaut, who share how they war-gamed ways to turn good policy ideas into reality.
Part policy memoir, part war-room drama, part field guide, Making Progress: How Good Policy Happens is a political book with a message-and a method.
Jenny Macklin is former deputy leader of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party, the first woman elected to a leadership position in a major Australian political party. In the Rudd–Gillard governments, she was minister for disability reform, families, housing, community services. As minister for Indigenous affairs, she oversaw the Apology to the Stolen Generations and developed the Closing the Gap framework. She established Australia’s first national paid parental leave scheme, reformed the pension, led the design and implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and helped establish the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. She served as member for Jagajaga for twenty-three years.