'How are policy decisions made?' with Sir Ashley Bloomfield
This first episode of the 'Research Impact for Public Good' webinar series was held on Wednesday 24 July 2024.
For our inaugural episode, we welcomed Sir Ashley Bloomfield, former Director-General of Health who led New Zealand's health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr Bloomfield joined the University of Auckland in 2023 as a Professor in the School of Public Health, and is the Director of the Institute for Public Impact (IPI). In his presentation 'How are policy decisions made?', Dr Bloomfield shared insights on policy making from his 25 years of public sector experience, discussing how publicly funded research should benefit the public and how this often occurs through influencing--directly or indirectly--political and policy decisions.
Dr Bloomfield spoke to key pain points for researchers and policymakers, including role misunderstandings, short-term political cycles, and unclear policy processes, emphasised the importance of integrating Indigenous knowledge systems into research, and explained that most research impacts policy indirectly through media and public awareness. Local examples were presented, including: the current implementation of boot camps despite lacking evidence; the changes to breast screening ages, which was moderated by available evidence under time constraints; and the development and impact of pioneering legislation like the Psychoactive Substances Act and the Smoke-free Environments Amendment Act of 2003. Throughout the webinar, he underscored the need for strong partnerships between policymakers, end-users, and researchers to achieve the best outcomes.