The Lab did not appear from nowhere. It is the product of years of research, advocacy and movement-building - and a deliberate choice about how Australia should have its hardest conversations. This is the road that led here.
Whether a National Conversation is the right response to the challenges Australia faces - and if so, what form it would need to take to be genuinely effective.
Building on years of advocacy, research and convening, which culminated in the introduction of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill in February 2025, Foundations for Tomorrow undertook a twelve-week research sprint to map experts, stakeholders and international case studies, and to understand best practice for a process of this kind in Australia.
The sprint produced a clear finding: a National Conversation should not be designed by specialists and handed to communities. It would have to be built collaboratively - and that collaboration would require its own dedicated infrastructure. That insight gave rise to our concept of the Lab: a dedicated design phase through which the National Conversation could be collaboratively built.
FFT consulted 10,000 young Australians on their vision for a just, equitable and sustainable future - one of the largest youth-led national consultations on intergenerational fairness. Captured in the Awareness to Action report, the findings surfaced clear calls for long-term thinking and proactive leadership, and named short-termism as a core problem to solve.
learn more →Short-termism in policy - the core problem surfaced through Awareness to Action - became the focus of a year-long study of global best practice. FFT identified international leaders in long-term governance and future-generations policy, then consulted them directly to translate what works overseas into a strategy suited to the Australian context.
FFT invested two years in facilitating dialogue, running consultations and strategic workshops, and leading research. This work produced the recommendations in the For Our Future Policy Brief - the substantive contribution that went on to shape the Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill.
learn more →To build political championship for future-generations thinking, FFT established this multi-partisan group - initially co-chaired by Dr Sophie Scamps MP, Ms Zaneta Mascarenhas MP and Mrs Bridget Archer MP - to facilitate constructive, cross-partisan dialogue on protecting the interests of future generations.
learn more →To build the civil-society support that drives change, FFT co-founded the IFC with Orygen, the Foundation for Young Australians, Think Forward and EveryGen. Now nearly 40 members strong, the coalition hosted the first Intergenerational Fairness Summit in 2023.
learn more →Launched at the 2024 Intergenerational Fairness Summit, the Brief capped two years of work developing a robust set of policy proposals to safeguard the interests of future generations - alongside a network of champions across civil society, academia and politics.
learn more →Dr Sophie Scamps MP introduced the Bill, seconded by Mrs Bridget Archer MP. The product of four years of civil-society collaboration, it put long-term, future-focused decision-making onto the national agenda - and became the platform the Lab now builds on.
learn more →FFT mapped experts, stakeholders and international case studies to understand best practice and governance for a process of this kind in Australia. The finding was clear: a National Conversation should not be designed by specialists and handed to communities - it must be built collaboratively, with its own dedicated infrastructure. That insight became the Lab.
A project pairing the stories of fifteen everyday Australians with deep policy analysis - from housing and aged care to energy transition and marine conservation - running as both research and proof of concept. It showed that the knowledge for better long-term decisions often already exists in communities and in families.
Portraits proved everyday Australians can engage seriously with complex, long-term challenges - but that engagement alone is not enough. The Lab is the mechanism for ensuring those voices and that knowledge are systematically heard, synthesised and translated into durable policy.
see Portraits of Our Future →The National Conversation Discussion Paper launched at Parliament House, hosted by the Parliamentary Group for Future Generations. It set out the case for a large-scale national dialogue to rebuild trust and support long-term leadership - addressing challenges from housing to climate, drawing on international examples from Wales and Singapore, with public feedback open until January 2026.
See the Discussion Paper →Before going further, FFT sought guidance from respected First Nations leaders through a series of confidential interviews. The questions were deliberately open - including whether a National Conversation is appropriate at all, whether a non-Indigenous-led organisation should lead it, and what would make participation meaningful rather than extractive. The intent was to listen for risk and tension, not affirmation. The guidance shared has shaped the Lab's design, and continues to.
The Lab opened at the meeting of the Parliamentary Group for Future Generations at Parliament House - co-chaired by Dr Sophie Scamps MP, Senator Maria Kovacic and Ms Ash Ambihaipahar MP - announced alongside Portraits of Our Future, with more than 50 experts and organisations already signed on. From the outset, the Lab committed to working in public - collaboratively, transparently, and free from partisan persuasion.
see the announcement →With the Lab open, the focus turned to building the relationships the work depends on - assembling the partner coalition, refining the governance structures, and incorporating feedback to strengthen the Lab's direction. The first Lab meeting convened partners to set gaps, priorities and shared assumptions for the design work ahead.
The Lab's six Development Tracks and its programme of prototypes, pilots and community testing begin, running through to mid-2027. It is an Australian-first that inverts the usual model: communities, organisations and leaders are not asked to participate in someone else's design - they are the designers, bringing their knowledge, relationships and lived understanding of what Australia needs into the architecture of the Conversation itself.