Rudd opens $100m public policy centre

Kevin Rudd has opened a $100 million public policy centre at Canberra's Australian
National University.
The prime minister told an audience of about 100 people that universities and the
Australian public service often operated in a "parallel universe".
"To be frank, Australia is not so flash at connecting the work of academics done
with the work of government," he said on Saturday.
"Too often public servants and academics stay in their respective ivory towers and
concrete parcels."
The federal government has committed $111.7 million towards the university's new
Australian National Institute for Public Policy.
Mr Rudd was joined at his former university by its chancellor and former Labor
foreign minister Gareth Evans as he opened the JG Crawford building - the new hub of
the institute.
Federal Minister for Research Kim Carr, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
secretary Terry Moran, Treasury chief Ken Henry and the university's vice chancellor
Professor Ian Chubb were also in the lecture theatre.
The public policy institute budget will include a new $19.8 million building for the
new National Security College.
Another $18 million has been set aside for an Australian Centre on China in the
World building.
The institute will also establish the HC Coombs Policy Forum.
It is named after "Nugget" Coombs, a three-decade public servant who served as
inaugural governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia and advised both Liberal and
Labor prime ministers.
In his speech, Mr Rudd said public policy thinks tanks played an important role in
public debate and influencing policy outcomes.
He praised independent policy think tanks the Grattan Institute - tied to the
University of Melbourne - the Cape York Institute and the University of Sydney's
United States Studies Centre.
"These examples tend to be more the exception rather than the norm," he said.