A new report prepared by the University of Melbourne shows that State and Federal Governments are continuing to form policy decisions based on incomplete information that is not subject to scrutiny.

Professor Deborah Cobb-Clark assessed the quality of policy evaluations made by both Commonwealth and State Governments, concluding that the current system is leading to poor-quality evaluations that in turn form questionable policy making.

"Sound, independent program evaluation is crucial to ensuring taxpayers receive value for money, but the current evaluation system generally produces poor-quality evaluations that don’t tell us very much,” Professor Cobb-Clark said.

"Unlike medical trials which must be registered, the results of economic and social policy evaluations are often buried when they do not suit politicians or policymakers. This makes it impossible to know what works and what does not."

Professor Cobb-Clark is calling for all policy evaluations to be made public as a matter of course.

"All evaluations conducted by or commissioned through the government should be published externally, perhaps with a short embargo period for journalists and stakeholders to consider the findings," she said.

The full report can be found here