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Atlassian and government back tech policy think tank after ANU cans it

- January 20, 2025 2 MIN READ
Tech Policy Design Institute cofounders Zoe Hawkins, Johanna Weaver and Sunita Kumar. Photo: Paul Chapman
Canberra has a new think tank for tech policy founded by three women to offer advice on the way forward in a digital world.

The Tech Policy Design Institute (TPDi) bills itself as Australia’s first non-partisan, independent think tank focused on best practice technology policy.

Its cofounders, Johanna Weaver, Zoe Jay Hawkins and Sunita Kumar, said TPDi’s mission is to shape technology for the benefit of humanity through independent research, innovative education, public commentary, and community building, as well as maintaining Australia’s position as a global leader in tech policy.

Weaver is a former commercial litigator and diplomat, and Australia’s chief cyber negotiator at the United Nations, who previously founded the Tech Policy Design Centre at Australian National University in 2021. The centre fell victim to ANU’s swingeing cost cutting in late 2024, with its funding canned amid a $250 million budget deficit at the university.

It’s now morphed into the Canberra-based not-for-profit TPDi, with Weaver as CEO.

The Institute’s funding now comes from government via the Finance Department, and Ed Husic’s portfolio – industry, science and resources, as well as some familiar tech heavy hitters, including Atlassian, Microsoft, Salesforce, Adobe, Amazon, Apple, and tech professionals industry body ACS.

Weaver said full founding membership of TPDi’s funding body will be announced in Canberra on February 10, arguing it will be broad-based in order to prevent it from being hijacked from a particular side of the tech debate.

“TPDi embraces a multi-stakeholder funding model, drawing support from government, industry, philanthropy, and charitable sectors,” she said.

“This approach safeguards our independence by preventing capture by any single group. It allows us to critically engage with all stakeholders, harnessing diverse expertise to co-design practical policy solutions that deliver better outcomes for Australia.”

While the Tech Council of Australia is an industry lobby group with a board featuring multiple billionaires, Weaver sees TPDi as filling a gap around tech policy by taking into account its impact from societal, security, economic and environmental perspectives.

“Young people’s use of social media, digital identity, cyber security, and technology’s impact on democracy, are just some of the tech policy issues on the national agenda in 2025,” she said.

Former Tech Council CEO is on the board, along with Atlassian’s global policy head, David Masters, with eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, and former ACCC boss Rod Simon about the organisation’s advisers.

Hawkins, TPDi’s chief strategy officer, said the institute will act as a catalyst for more informed and empowering public conversations on how to harness policy to shape technology.

“Given its rapid evolution, it’s easy to feel like we have little control over where technology is headed, but we don’t have to passively accept the status quo,” she said.

“We can – and must – shape technology through the power of policy.”

The Institute’s activation comes as tech titans such as Meta’s Mark Zuckerber, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Donald Trump BFF Elon Musk gather in Washington DC with front row seats for the inauguration of the 47th US president.