Abstract: Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland are among the world’s most prosperous and equal nations. Their average child poverty rate is less than half Australia’s. They are global leaders in gender equality and Sweden now pursues that as a central element in foreign policy. Australia can learn from, adapt and apply some successful approaches taken by Nordic countries, contrary to prevailing pessimism that ‘path dependency’ means change is not possible and contrary to ill-informed notions that Nordic policies only work in monocultural settings.

Bio: Dr Andrew Scott is Professor of Politics and Policy at Deakin University, Inaugural Convenor of The Australia Institute Nordic Policy Centre and author or editor of six books including The Nordic Edge: Policy Possibilities for Australia (Melbourne University Press, 2021). He advocates the merits of proven social democratic policies to reduce income and wealth inequalities such as: comprehensive paid parental leave; support for employment transitions of mature-aged workers; and management of natural resource wealth fairly and sustainably. He has practical policy experience advising senior parliamentarians at national level, and government at sub-national level

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