Jul 9, 2026 – 12.00pmIt started over coffee on a Carlton footpath. Once a week, outside an Italian cafe, a rotating cast of Melbourne’s public service elite and intellectual heavyweights met to dissect the news of the day. They didn’t know it yet, but amid the clatter and hum of Lygon Street, the blueprint for Australia’s leading public policy factory was being drawn.Among the regulars were Glyn Davis and Terry Moran – two men destined to later both serve as Australia’s top bureaucrat, heading the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under Labor governments. But back in 2008, Davis was the vice chancellor of the University of Melbourne and Moran was the head of the Victorian public service.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Luke KinsellaReporterLuke Kinsella is a journalist based in The Australian Financial Review’s Sydney office. He was previously a policy analyst at Treasury.Fetching latest articles
How Grattan became our most influential public policy factory
Born at a Carlton cafe 20 years ago, how influential has the Grattan Institute been, is it a haven for bureaucratic lefties and what does its future hold?
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