Assignment
A policy brief is intended to inform the decision-making of government officials, in this case the Commonwealth Attorney-General and the relevant state or territory Premier. In this assignment, you will prepare a policy brief on your chosen illicit market to inform your government official of the current issues (state and federal) and present your recommendations relating to how current policy could be changed.
• illicit drugs trade
Length: 1500 (+/- 10%) words.
Your policy brief is required to do the following:
1. Explain the relevance and importance of your chosen topic in contemporary society, including a brief description of how it has emerged as an issue in Australia and if relevant, your state or territory.
2. Outline and critically analyse current policies regarding your chosen topic. This means evaluating their purpose, effectiveness, cost, as well as other strengths and limitations.
3. Provide recommendations, based upon relevant evidence and your critical analysis, regarding how policy should be changed to be more effective, efficient, humane, etc. Your recommendations should make a clear, compelling and evidence-based case for whatever changes you are proposing.
When conducting research for this assignment, you should use academic sources as well as government reports. Your recommendations do not need to be original. Policies on illicit markets vary extensively between different countries and to a lesser extent between different Australian states. Use examples from other jurisdictions, whether internationally or within Australia, to inform your policy recommendations.
While based upon robust and credible evidence, policy briefs are not academic documents, and should be written in a simple, clear yet formal style for an intelligent, but time-poor audience. Use headings, sub-headings as well as graphs and tables where appropriate to make the document easy to read.