In 2020, the Australian Government's Minister for Energy requested an amendment to the National Energy Retail Rules. New rules aimed to simplify power and gas bills for households and small business owners and support consumers to engage with the market to find better energy deals.

But what actually makes a bill better?

How easy can it be to switch to a better plan?

This presentation will take you on a policy development tour, covering 4 BETA projects and showcasing how behavioural insights are saving Australians money.

The NSW Government is using sludge audits to improve the efficiency, inclusiveness, and fairness of public services. There is also opportunity for a whole-of-organisation approach to build on the existing work on specific, targeted processes. In 2025, Heritage NSW and the Behavioural Insights Unit launched the first agency-wide sludge reduction program as part of a broader transformation of heritage services.

Behavioural science has long been at the forefront of the evidence-informed policy movement. The Australian Public Service (APS) has developed a cluster of entities in central departments tasked with ensuring the Australian Government’s policy decisions are made with access to high-quality, relevant evidence. Together these entities maintain strategic oversight of the structures, systems and processes for evidence generation and consideration within the APS.

Behavioural science has already used evidence to make policies more effective. Now the challenge is to bring rigorous, empirical evidence to the routines and rules that shape how public administration itself works. This presentation will cover what practices have been tried, what worked, what did not, and why. In will help leaders decide where to invest in Behavioural Public Administration capability, and equip policymakers with the practices they should adopt, adapt and translate to their administration’s context.