This project examines the political economy of access to COVID-19 vaccines, including the politics and contestations regarding intellectual property rights, and global mechanisms to improve equity. The project aims to identify lessons for Australian policymakers on improved mechanisms and governance for health equity, and explore impacts of regional dynamics.

This three year project is funded by the Australian Research Council and aims to develop a knowledge base focused on understanding the ways in which civil society organisations/non-government organisations engage with government and the private sector, and the different approaches used by them to regulate alcohol and ultraprocessed food industries so as to reduce negative health impacts.

Biometric technologies, as well as predictive algorithms and risk assessment models, are increasingly used as regulatory tools in the context of social assistance, often in the name of cost savings and fraud prevention. In 2019, the UN rapporteur on extreme poverty warned that doing so has enabled Big Tech companies to surveil the poor without appropriate accountability or regulation. Beyond the controversial Robodebt scandal in Australia, we know little about how these technologies operate in practice or how they affect recipients in everyday life.