Learning from elsewhere : policy learning and transfer in the case of the New South Wales Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995

The aim of this paper is to examine a case study of policy learning and policy transfer involving the New South Wales government in regard to threatened species conservation. The case study is unusual in that it demonstrates, at the sub-national level, a complex web of policy learning and transfer relationships involving international, national and sub-national sources, and, hence, the substantial role that learning and transfer have in policy development processes for state governments in Australia. In general, the type of learning and transfer that took place was partial, with specific ideas, principles, concepts and processes being derived from a number of differing sources, but often modified, in a process of policy reinvention, rather than simply copied.