As bureaucrats pore over submissions to the Government's new development policy, the Lab's Pitch Inquiry considers three measures that would help nudge Canberra towards a more sophisticated approach to the region. Implementing these measures at home would help improve the effectiveness of the development program.

The development budget isn’t likely to grow substantially any time soon, so we can ill-afford to waste a single development dollar. Not only that, but the dollars we do have will need to work harder.

Development funding is essential to meeting the challenges we’re facing in relation to increasing climate crises, war and displacement, food insecurity, geo-strategic competition, and growing inequity following the pandemic. In the absence of being able to throw more money at it, we need to get the most bang for our buck.

In the first Inquiry for the Pitch, the Lab has explored three ways we can make our money go further.