A National Conversation
A National Conversation is a large-scale, structured process, not a one-off event or a government survey. It brings together everyday Australians across generations, communities and regions to explore what matters most, identify what we share, and build a shared direction for where we are headed as a nation.
Done well, it builds tools, trust and systems that allow communities and governments to make ambitious, long-term decisions together, and stick to them.
Other countries have shown it's possible and transformative:
In Wales, a year-long National Conversation directly shaped landmark future generations legislation, the first of its kind in the world.
In Singapore, more than 200,000 people helped redraft the nation's social compact.
In Taiwan, a grassroots civic process achieved consensus on major national policy questions, with the government acting on more than 80% of what emerged.
Each model was designed for its specific context, culture and institutions, and Australia's will be too.
Why can’t we just copy someone else’s model?
Australia needs its own model for a National Conversation, one designed for who are are and the Country we share.
It has to work for the nurse finishing a late shift in Adelaide and the farmer managing drought in western Queensland. For the student in Sydney and the small business owner in regional Victoria. And for the communities who have cared for this Country for tens of thousands of years.
That is why FFT is convening ‘The Lab’. To build a uniquely Australian model, designed to take us from the country, banking on ‘luck’ that is running thin, to one of deliberate choice.
Why do we need a model at all?
Before you run a process at a national scale, you have to get the design right. Who gets included and how? What questions get asked? How do you make sure the outcomes connect to real decision-making rather than disappearing into a report? How do you reach a cattle farmer in western Queensland and a student in Western Sydney and make both feel genuinely heard?
These are the challenges we need to navigate. There have been many consultations, engagements and co-design processes, but too often they have been limited in who they reached, disconnected from decision-making or unable to build lasting momentum. That’s why we need a different approach.
We are walking the walk and planning long-term, investing the time to ensure that a National Conversation is done well, and in a way that engages everyday Australians.
What is the Lab?
The National Conversation Development Lab (‘the Lab’) is the preparation phase. It exists to ensure a National Conversation is built properly, so it earns trust and leads to meaningful change.
Rather than launching a large public process too quickly, the Lab brings together communities, citizens, institutions and leaders to design and test the model first, to protect against repeating past mistakes. It builds the right foundations before asking the country to engage at scale.
The Lab is not the National Conversation itself; it’s the collaborative phase where the model is prototyped, piloted and refined.
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There is a clear opportunity: the next federal election in 2028. Election cycles shape what becomes politically possible.
By running The Lab ahead of that moment, we will be building something that is implementation-ready, so leaders across parties have a tested, credible model to engage with as they shape the next Parliamentary Term.
While 2028 is a key window, the goal is long-term: to establish a model that endures beyond any one government or election cycle.
That is how ideas move from good intentions to durable reform. Preparation before that window expands what is possible. Preparation after it means starting from scratch.
How the Lab works
Stage One: Building the Foundations
March - June 2026
Before moving into design, from March to June, we will take three months to build the relationships this work depends on.
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Our focus will be on bringing the right people into the room and making sure this work is grounded, representative and politically credible from the start.
That means ensuring representation across political views, regions, communities and generations, including First Nations peoples and historically marginalised groups.
We will also reach out to civil society, business, research institutions, community leaders, senior public servants and federal parliamentarians to strengthen shared ownership, cultivate political champions and build national readiness for durable reform.
Stage Two: Collaborative Design and Prototyping
June 2026- June 2027
For 12 months, six Development Tracks will run simultaneously.
The network of organisations, leaders, experts and advocates brought together in the foundation stage will now work side by side to develop, test and pilot different dimensions of the model in real communities.
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Government and Policy Integration
Research Design, Data Capture, Privacy and Ethics
Technology and Experience Design
Community-led Design and Localisation
Accessibility, Inclusion and Representation
Narrative, Framing and Social Cohesion
Participants in the Lab will engage with the tracks relevant to their expertise.
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Prototyping happens within the Development Tracks: developing and refining core design concepts before public testing.
Piloting takes selected elements into the real world: surveys, facilitated sessions, and community-based activities.
Stage Three: Finalisation and Delivery
June - December 2027
Learnings and insights from across previous stages are brought together into a clear, implementation-ready model.
Governance approaches are finalised, and the full model is prepared for delivery. This period will also include an acceleration of the political engagement that has underpinned the operation of the Lab from the beginning, working with the network of political champions the Lab has built to seek support for the adoption and implementation of this model, ensuring the model is positioned for consideration ahead of the 2028 federal election
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FFT and Core Partners of the Lab will undertake targeted briefings with federal parliamentarians, parties and senior officials in an effort to build broad political backing for the National Conversation model ahead of the 2028 federal election.
In parallel, the Lab will identify complementary reforms and alternative influencing pathways to bolster the Lab's impact and ensure that progress is not contingent on a single political outcome.
18 months. Three stages. One durable model for a National Conversation. A transparent path from idea to implementation, and you can follow every step.
What the Lab will deliver
By the end of 18 months, the Lab will have produced something Australia hasn't had before: a credible, tested and ready-to-run model for a National Conversation.
That means five concrete things:
Clear road rules: how a National Conversation would be run, who oversees it, and how it stays independent from political interference.
Proposed questions: a shared framework of national questions, tested across different communities and contexts, that gives the National Conversation focus without limiting what people can say.
Engagement approaches designed for impact:looking beyond theoretical models, towards methods piloted with real people in real places and refined based on what we learned.
Strategies to scale: proposed technology tools and systems that make it possible to join in from anywhere in the country, simply and safely, with full transparency about how contributions are used and an opportunity to shape decision-making.
A Policy Tool for durable decision-making: A practical Policy Tool, grounded in process outputs, that helps leaders reason effectively through long-term trade-offs, surface synergies and co-benefits across policy domains, and sustain accountability to shared national priorities beyond any single term of government.
Most importantly, the Lab is being built with the people who will deliver it. A model by Australians, for Australia.
Everyday Australians, community leaders, local networks and civic institutions aren't being consulted after the fact; they are shaping the model from the outset. This approach recognises an often-overlooked truth: the difference between a recommendation and a result is the people behind it.
Portraits of our Future
The Lab is convened by FFT, an organisation that has spent years building towards exactly this moment.
But the Lab didn't begin with a strategy. It began with people. Portraits of Our Future brings their stories into focus and makes clear, in human terms, exactly why long-term thinking cannot be deferred.
Read their stories and decide if you want to help build what comes next.
