Australia 2020 Summit

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The Australia 2020 Summit was a convention, referred to in Australian media as a summit, which was held on 19-20 April 2008 in Canberra, Australia, aiming to "help shape a long term strategy for the nation's future".[1] Announced by the new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the summit drew limited bipartisan support from Brendan Nelson and the opposition Coalition parties, and ran as 10 working groups of 100 participants.[2]

1002 delegates[3] attended the summit to discuss ten "critical areas". Ideas and proposals were invited from all members of the community, and an official web site was set up to accept submissions.

The 10 critical policy areas were:

  1. Productivity—including education, skills, training, science and innovation.
  2. Economy—including infrastructure and the digital economy.
  3. Sustainability and climate change.
  4. Rural Australia—focusing on industries and communities.
  5. Health and ageing.
  6. Communities and families.
  7. Indigenous Australia.
  8. Creative Australia—the arts, film and design.
  9. Australian governance, democracy and citizenship.
  10. Security and prosperity—including foreign affairs and trade.

Contents

[edit] Participants

For full list, see: Australia 2020 Summit participants

The summit was led by a 11-member steering committee, whose initial membership was announced on 26 February 2008. The committee played a key role in selecting the other participants, and each member led one of the working groups together with a government co-chair.[4] Since the initial announcement, Dr Kelvin Kong (Indigenous Australia) withdrew due to family health reasons, and Dr Jackie Huggins was appointed to replace him. On 14 April 2008, an additional co-chair, Dr Julianne Schultz, was announced for the Creative Australia stream.

The members of the steering committee are as follows:[4]

Working group (stream) Committee member Government co-chair
Chair Professor Glyn Davis N/A
Productivity Warwick Smith Julia Gillard
Economy Dr David Morgan Wayne Swan
Sustainability
and Climate Change		 Roger Beale Penny Wong
Rural Australia Tim Fischer Tony Burke
Health Professor Michael Good Nicola Roxon
Communities and Families Rev. Tim Costello Tanya Plibersek
Indigenous Australia Dr Jackie Huggins
(replaced Dr Kelvin Kong)		 Jenny Macklin
Creative Australia Cate Blanchett and
Dr Julianne Schultz		 Peter Garrett
Australian Governance John Hartigan Maxine McKew
Security and Prosperity Professor Michael Wesley Stephen Smith

[edit] Related events

Several events were held in the lead up to the Australia 2020 Summit:

[edit] Criticism

The summit was initially criticised for the near-absence of women on the 11-member steering committee who would pick the 1,000 delegates—only actress Cate Blanchett had been named. The Government responded by saying six of the co-chairs would be female politicians.[5][6] By the time of the summit, there were three women on a 12-member committee.[4] Additionally, some conservative commentators such as the Institute of Public Affairs and Australian Monarchist League criticised what they saw as the unrepresentative nature of the delegates, which in their view biased the final report towards republicanism and ideas such as constitutional reform and a bill of rights.[7]

Some of the delegates themselves expressed criticism of how the summit was conducted. In particular, claims were made that the final paper which purported to represent the resolutions of the sub-groups did not reflect ideas which they had espoused or did include ideas which they had not discussed, possibly reflecting an agenda which had been determined before the summit.[8][9][10] Others were concerned that hard issues, such as terrorism in the group examining foreign affairs and security issues, were ignored.[11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Australia 2020, about the summit. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved on 2008-02-18.
  2. ^ "2020 summit not just another talkfestwork = The Australian", New Limited, February 04, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-02-18. 
  3. ^ "Rudd opens 2020 summit", SBS News, 19 April 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-12. "Mr Rudd says there were 1,002 delegates attending the summit." 
  4. ^ a b c Australia 2020. Steering Committee. Government of Australia. Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
  5. ^ "Gillard deflects 2020 summit panel criticism", ABC Online, 27 February 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-12. 
  6. ^ Maiden, Samantha. "Rudd 'blokefest' attracts 3,000 hopefuls", The Australian, 27 February 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-13. 
  7. ^ "2020 a 'blatantly political exercise'", ABC (The World Today), 21 April 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-12.  For other comments on Roskam's view, see "2020 summit 'a PR stunt'", ABC Online, 21 April 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-12. 
  8. ^ Salusinszky, Imre. "Bright ideas fade under controversy", The Australian, 23 April 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-12. 
  9. ^ Marr, David. "Glimmers of hope survive in the mush", Sydney Morning Herald, 21 April 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-12. ""Mush," declared Jack Waterford of The Canberra Times as he read their [the professional facilitators] attempt to boil down the first day's work of our "Open Government and the Media" substream - sorry about the language - of the Governance stream. He demanded to know: "What's happened to all our ideas?"" 
  10. ^ Australian Associated Press (AAP). "Feisty debate at summit", Sydney Morning Herald, 21 April 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-12. "Dissention [sic] has emerged in the ranks at the 2020 summit with some delegates angry their ideas are falling on deaf ears, or not being heard at all." 
  11. ^ Allard, Tom. "Diverse input, but little output", Sydney Morning herald. Retrieved on 2008-05-12. 

[edit] External links