Open Educational Practices (OEP) have played an important role in assisting educational institutions and governments worldwide to meet their current and future educational targets in widening participation, lowering costs, improving the quality of learning and teaching and promoting social inclusion and participatory democracy. There have been some important OEP developments in Australia, but unfortunately the potential of OEP to meet some of the national higher education targets has not been fully realised and acknowledged yet, in ways that many countries around the world have. This paper will gather, discuss, and analyse some key national and international policies, as well as frameworks and guidelines available as an attempt to provide a solid foundation for the case of an OEP national policy for higher education in Australia. The authors will also discuss the efforts made so far to drive OEP policy development and suggest a way forward for OEP policy in Australia higher education.
