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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.

Policy Agendas in Australia

Introduction.- Part I. Theory and Measurement of the Policy Agendas Project.- 1. The Policy Agenda: Attention, Content and Style.- 2. Theories and Concepts.- Part II. Australian Politics.- 3. Political Institutions and Policy in Australia.- Part III. Agendas within Formal Institutions.- 4. Executive and Legislative Agendas.- 5. Describing Legislative Patterns.- 6. Opposition Agendas.- Part IV. Outside Influence: Media and Public Agendas.- 7. The Media Agenda.- 8. The Public Agenda.- Part V. Conclusion and International Comparisons.- 9. Conclusion and Comparative Lessons.