Australia 2020 Summit

Over the weekend in Australia’s capital of Canberra, 1002 people from all areas of life gathered to discuss the future of Australia. They were tasked with coming with up the best ideas to lead Australia into the 21st century, to be implemented by 2020.

People had to nominate themselves to attend the 2020 Summit and give reasons why they think they should attend. Of the thousands of entries only 1002 people were chosen.

The areas that the 2020 Summit focused on were:

1) Productivity: Education, Training, Science and Innovation

2) The Economy

3) Population, Sustainability, climate change and water

4) Rural Australia

5) Health

6) Families and Communities

7) Indigenous Australia

8) Creative Australia

9) Governance

10) Security

Each of the above streams was co-chaired by a community member and a member of parliament.

To add a bit of celebrity, Creative Australia was co-chaired by Cate Blanchett, less than a week after she had a baby.

Over the course of a day and half, people were broken into groups to come up with ideas to present to the Prime Minister.

A mighty task to accomplish such a thing in a small amount of time, but it was done.

Here are some of the ideas that came out of it:

Introduction of an Australian Republic in two stages, beginning with a plebiscite on the issue followed by a referendum.

Create a national preventative health agency. Funded by taxes on products with high social cost, e.g. alcohol, cigarettes and junk food.

All new buildings to be carbon neutral

Creation of “community corps” to allow students to reduce their HECS (student loans) debt through volunteer work.

Increasing the formal and legal recognition of Aborigines, with the possibility of a treaty.

The development and implementation of both a Charter of Rights and a National Action Plan for Social Inclusion

Contributing 1% of federal funding allocated to each government department to the arts

My thoughts

It’s great that the federal government of Australia is including people from all walks of life with skills and experience in their respective areas to help lay the foundation for the polices and programs that the government will implement.

It feels like democracy really at work.

It reminded me of my time at the Globe and Mail and having all the employees who wanted to participate work in groups to come with ideas of re-imaging the newspaper. I got to work with people in editorial, sales and marketing. It really felt like the employees were contributing to the organization they worked in.

I think the people involved in the 2020 summit would feel the same way; they are helping to shape the future of their country, lives and the communities they live in. It’s a wonderful feeling to be part of.

One comment that I thought was very telling was from aboriginal attendees. Saying over and over again “how wonderful it was to be brought back together”.

It seems like a revolutionary idea, but it shouldn’t be. Government is supposed to work for us. But it doesn't feel that way - politics, agenda’s and money seem to play a big part of how government operates at all levels.

Maybe it’s time we get back to the grassroots and have governments work for us and not treating their constituents as an after thought.