Climate and energy. Work/life balance. Mining taxes. Progress on policy issues like these is essential, and yet they have become subject to the most rancorous partisanship, the precipitation of culture wars, and have brought down governments.

Foreign aid assistance by Nordic nations is amongst the most generous in the world. Policymakers are increasingly targeting that aid toward climate adaptation. In contrast, Australia’s aid programs remain dismally underfunded.  

Museums are key sites for climate change education, action and research. Oslo’s Klimahuset museum is a world-leading institution dedicated to communicating climate change.  

The Nordic Sami parliaments provide the indigenous people of Norway, Sweden and Finland with a voice in decisions affecting their communities. These parliaments provide an insight for attempts in Australia to provide a similar voice for Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

All new car sales in Norway will be zero-emissions vehicles by 2025. To achieve this goal, Norway has a comprehensive electric vehicle policy. Australia has no federal electric vehicle strategy or policies and no plan for the transition from ICE vehicles.

Finland tops the media literacy index, an annual index of European countries measuring resistance to fake news. Finland’s success rests on the teaching of media literacy skills in schools. 

Unemployment policies in Nordic countries highlight how Australian unemployment benefits could be improved. Poverty levels in Nordic countries are significantly lower than in Australia, partly due to unemployment policies that provide greater support.

It has been claimed that higher levels of taxation weaken the economy but a comparative study of 188 economies shows that higher levels of taxation are correlated with higher average income. The positive correlation also exists with other measures of economic wellbeing.

The provision of free childcare provides the rarest of economic policy opportunities – it’s both an effective form of fiscal stimulus in the short term and has the capacity to boost the long-term participation rate and, in turn, the long-run rate of economic growth.

The Danish Government has refused Covid-19 bailout money to companies registered in tax havens. This has inspired some countries to adopt similar restrictions, but Australia is yet to follow suit.