REFLECTIONS ON THE AUSTRALIA 2020 SUMMIT

 The Australia 2020 summit with its catch cry of ‘Thinking Big’ certainly had the sense of being an historic occasion.

Led by the Prime Minster Kevin Rudd, it was a new collaboration, opening up the corridors of power to captains of industry, indigenous leaders, community activists, quiet achievers from rural communities, celebrities, youth, world class scholars, past and present political leaders and today’s working journalists and politicians.

The tone was about wider dialogue and fresh ideas – not through oratory and speechmaking, but by getting down to business with new solutions to the big issues affecting Australia.

Working side by side and sharing the task, there was a sense of collegiality, passionate and robust questioning and distilling the essence of the new ideas that emerged and testing them. Not always harmoniously, and with many questions still left unanswered.

The end products from each of the ten streams were pulled together, using typical processes of our management consultant facilitators, and summarised in an interim report presented to the Prime Minister. The full report – with more nuanced ideas and background thinking – is still to come.

The potent themes emerging for me were:

• More support and finance for the education and skills of Australians at every level – a national education curriculum and accreditation system, lifelong learning opportunities, mobility of workers, higher teacher salaries, investment in an education and training system that is excellent and inclusive.

• Fixing Federalism – rethinking State/Commonwealth responsibilities, taxes and regulations as a    seamless national modern market with a global outlook.

• Australia being a leader in the world as an ingenious, creative and compassionate global citizen, engaged in helping to solve the big challenges we share with the world whether in security, food shortages, poverty, or climate change.

• The centrality of social, cultural, health and community development issues to Australia’s economic success – not the other way around as it is usually portrayed. So, a balanced scorecard for the nation – not just GDP measures – was welcomed.

• A new lens on how we view indigenous Australians as the oldest living civilisation on the planet and therefore how to approach both the contributions and challenges affecting the first Australians.

In the Australian Economy stream, while we addressed significant and long overdue issues like the overhaul of the tax system and streamlining regulation, these just go to the efficiency of the Australian economy. We also need actions to boost the dynamism, agility and responsiveness of the Australian economy in the face of current and future challenges. This means a greater focus on innovation-led prosperity, where Australian ingenuity and creativity can be focused on addressing tomorrow’s problems and opportunities.

So, while there were blind spots in the Australia 2020 Summit and a sense of a conversation with much more to be said, it was unquestionably a success in engaging the imagination both of the participants and of the popular debate.