2020 Summit Objectives

[Superfly]

1. shouldn't cost much for a referendum on the republic (although they say they might do it as a two phase thing - firstly gauge the interest in republic, then the details.)

ps just tack it onto some of the upcoming byelections. - might save 10% or so

2. and happy, as to whether or not it's just a talkfest - let's wait until they publish the suggestions shall we? - or do you already know what they are?

Would one of them be the national banning of plactic shopping bags, which was an election promise by St Kevin...

...remember before the election how so much was going to get done with Labour accross all states and in Canderra... can't even agree a shopping bag ban....

 

[Happy]

as to whether or not it's just a talkfest - let's wait until they publish the suggestions shall we?

Yep, lets wait.

 

[Superfly]

b) it's a clever ploy surely ..
how the heck can the opposition come up with an idea in the near future that hasn't been canvassed or discussed - and hence can't be accused of being a plagiarism and/or (rightly or wrongly) traced back to this summit.

Oh... so Kevin Rudd has now bagged every thought that can or will ever be thought forever... well done St Kevin... well done....

c) ps who knows - maybe something extremely worthwhile will come out of this.
the 1000 are, after all, our best and brightest minds (allegedly anyways)

Anything about being able to govern the country ?

All labour states and Labour a fedral government and can not even get a national ban on plastic bags... maybe just a few weeks hmmm....

 

[2020hindsight]

don't know if anyone heard Andrew Bolt (Sun Herald) on Insiders this morning - gotta be one of the most rightwing reporters in Aus.

Anyway in his opinion a very poor performance by Nelson
a) saying it was a schemozzle (ok - at least consistent so far) , then

d) "But I would expect .., there will be a range of ideas .. which we in the Liberal and National parties will be able to consider for our own policy development "

"Staight away he' s contradicted himself and we don't know where he stands even on this little issue.
He also turns up, then doesn't want to contribute, etc "

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/19/2221785.htm?section=justin
Nelson's ideas

Sitting next to Blanchett, ... at the start of the day was Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson.

Despite some scepticism, he is listening intently.

"I think from the early morning sessions it's a bit of a schemozzle," he said.

"But I would expect by the time we get to tomorrow afternoon, there will be a range of ideas for consideration which we in the Liberal and National parties will be able to consider for our own policy development, as of course will the Government.

"I have quite a few ideas but I'm hardly going to come here and tell Mr Rudd what my ideas are for Australia's future."

 

[Julia]

Oh... so Kevin Rudd has now bagged every thought that can or will ever be thought forever... well done St Kevin... well done....


Anything about being able to govern the country ?

All labour states and Labour a fedral government and can not even get a national ban on plastic bags... maybe just a few weeks hmmm....

Hey Superfly,
Aren't you being a bit hard on poor Mr Rudd? Consider all the positives:

He smiles a lot. You can see he just loves his job. Therefore we may all feel very positive about Oz in his hands.

He's just met all the Important People Overseas. They all smiled a lot.
Except the Chinese CEO who didn't much like being told how to run his country. Don't worry about him. The Left back here loved Kevin sticking it to big powerful China.

He has spent much really, really useful time telling us about all the Committees, Enquiries and talkfests we are going to have.
Doesn't matter at all if nothing is resolved from any of these.
The important thing is to talk about stuff. Makes the punters think you are doing something that matters.

And if you are really, really lucky, there might be an enquiry into an enquiry about packaging and plastic drink bottles. It might even turn out that this will be even more of a worry than plastic shopping bags.

Just don't you worry about a thing, Superfly. Kevin has it all in hand.
Truly.

 

[Boyou]

Oooh Julia,A bit heavy handed with the sarcasm there,In my opinion

What better way to gauge public opinion than a very public talk fest? Not only by what is presented ,but by the general publics reaction /response to the whole idea? It engages the grey matter and stimulates debate..and that is just as the forum is in progress!

I await some media response and the whole melting pot of thoughts that MIGHT be generated. K Rudd and Labour have already been mandated by the biggest forum to do their best...perhaps this is our chance to finally become TRULY involved in the process of Government!

Have already read of discontent among a couple of delegates,who think their voice has not been heard..they must yell a bit more to be heard in a diverse country of so many "Interest groups"

Bring it on I say........ This whole idea has miles to go before it sleeps

Cheers Ya'll

 

[noco]

Hey Superfly,
Aren't you being a bit hard on poor Mr Rudd? Consider all the positives:

He smiles a lot. You can see he just loves his job. Therefore we may all feel very positive about Oz in his hands.

He's just met all the Important People Overseas. They all smiled a lot.
Except the Chinese CEO who didn't much like being told how to run his country. Don't worry about him. The Left back here loved Kevin sticking it to big powerful China.

He has spent much really, really useful time telling us about all the Committees, Enquiries and talkfests we are going to have.
Doesn't matter at all if nothing is resolved from any of these.
The important thing is to talk about stuff. Makes the punters think you are doing something that matters.

And if you are really, really lucky, there might be an enquiry into an enquiry about packaging and plastic drink bottles. It might even turn out that this will be even more of a worry than plastic shopping bags.

Just don't you worry about a thing, Superfly. Kevin has it all in hand.
Truly.

Julia, good on you.
We have seen Rudd sign the Kyoto Protocol and say sorry to the Aboriginals.
But what else has he done apart from his world tour and made a lot of promises.
He seems to be flitting from one thing to another including the 20/20 summit.
The 20/20 summit which had too many Labor politicians making long speaches, appears to me to be just a PR for the Labor party and a diversary tactic to take the WORKING FAMILIES minds away from the real issues of increasing petrol prices, increased cost of living, high interest rates and the shocking administration of health and education by the Labor states.
He said," the "BUCK" stops with him".So lets monitor his actions over the next 12 months.

 

[Julia]

Sorry, Boyou. But the silliness of my post masks my genuine concerns which have now been very well expressed by Noco. Seems to me to be lots of symbolism and gestures none of which, as far as I can tell, are doing anything to resolve any of the real problems.

Setting up a "grocery price watch" and ditto for petrol sounds as though something is actually being done, but in reality neither are doing anything in terms of curbing rising prices.

Now we are supposed to be grateful that the highs and lows of petrol pricing are going to be levelled out. My translation of that is simply that there will no longer be really cheap prices.
I accept that governments can't control petrol prices. But don't make grand gestures which might sound OK but don't actually make any difference.

I await with interest any suggestions emanating from the weekend's summit which are actually adopted by the government, that is if anyone actually had enough time and/or opportunity to voice said suggestions.

 

[Boyou]

I wasn't singling you out in my earleir post ,Julia..although it may have looked that way. I should have made note of Superfly's negative post too

Perhaps this sort of Summit (and how you perceive it) comes down to expectations .I don't really have great expectations of any government.The best we can hope for is they be good caretakers. Don't mess up to much and leave the lights burning when they go!
I don't expect government can FIX petrol prices any more than they can keep inflation or interest rates under control.I want a government that is at least asking questions and listening for answers.This government is providing the forum for some of us to ask the questions..the answers will take time.

It is a bit like this forum we are all on ..sometimes you don't know there was a question,till someone raises it...Let's just wait and see.Please don't underestimate the intellect and heart of Aussies!

 

[Superfly]

Rudd won government by creating the perception that John Howard had no vision for the future and that only he did, using Koyto as a big tool to push that point... but now Koyoto has been signed what has changed ??... nothing.. and now it's more talks about talks about talks...
B Nelson was dammed if he went to 20/20 and dammed as not supporting the future if he didn't... Nelson is doing a fair job considering the halo has not fallen of St Kevin just yet...
Rudd can't even get a national ban on shopping bags through with all states under Labour governance... which was promoted as being the way to get things done befoe the election.
Now its tracking workers email accounts... yeh... great comrades Rudd & Gillard.

 

[treefrog]

Rudd won government by creating the perception that John Howard had no vision for the future and that only he did, using Koyto as a big tool to push that point... but now Koyoto has been signed what has changed ??... nothing.. and now it's more talks about talks about talks...
B Nelson was dammed if he went to 20/20 and dammed as not supporting the future if he didn't... Nelson is doing a fair job considering the halo has not fallen of St Kevin just yet...
Rudd can't even get a national ban on shopping bags through with all states under Labour governance... which was promoted as being the way to get things done befoe the election.
Now its tracking workers email accounts... yeh... great comrades Rudd & Gillard.

lets wait and see how wee Kev and Jules stack up against big Geoff and Jim - so far no contest as nothing above the significant line yet for wee Kev and Jules

It is hard to overestimate the importance of that first Labor government after 23 years of stultifying conservative rule. Australia was in dire need of social reform, if only to keep pace with changes occurring overseas. Even after all these years, when we consider the most significant social and economic reforms of the last fifty years, a few can be sheeted home to Hawke but most to Whitlam.

 

[2020hindsight]

1. lets wait and see how wee Kev and Jules stack up against big Geoff and Jim - so far no contest as nothing above the significant line yet for wee Kev and Jules

2. It is hard to overestimate the importance of that first Labor government after 23 years of stultifying conservative rule. Australia was in dire need of social reform, if only to keep pace with changes occurring overseas. Even after all these years, when we consider the most significant social and economic reforms of the last fifty years, a few can be sheeted home to Hawke but most to Whitlam.

tfrog ,
1. sorry I miss the point
who are Geoff and Jim... thanks
(i.e. please explain :silly: )

2. Would you believe, we didn't even have an Aussie dictionary until Gough turned up on the scene
and Julia , that goes for "should of"
as well as "should have "
but I'm guessing you were still in NZ in those days

 

[2020hindsight]

Nelson is doing a fair job considering the halo has not fallen of St Kevin just yet....

Superfly ,
I'm guessing deep dowm
in your heart of hearts
you wouldn't put your house on the possibility of Brendan becoming PM
in fact , I'm guessing you wouldn't even put $5 on it

hey - Turnbull - now that's another matter !
(depends if you 're a republican lol)

maybe you'll be able to claim that you're good friends with the publican and is that near enough ?

 

[doogie_goes_off]

Look forward to the past, that's the kind of message I take from this brainstorming session of over educated unrepresentative people. There was some kind of ad in the paper to get on the 2020 summit, so you would need a profile to be picked, by rights the room should be full of average joes - I didn't see any did you?

Remember there are no stupid questions, just stupid people. Ask why this group was formed? because there is a lack of foresight in the current government, it's the muppet show with Kermit touring the world singing "somewhere over the rainbow", however I think it's the dreamers that sould be doing the singing because they might stop and actually do something about it.

Maybe if nothing else this narcissistic talk fest will encourage others into politics, hopefully as independents.

One thing I thought of was this... cut the number of electorates for the house of reps into thirds, now elect 3 reps for each electorate, you then have a minimum 3 way race and you allow non-party political people to get a better representation. Party politics does not work because the independents face the scourge of political donations.

So whats left? Maybe four year fixed parliamentary terms? I wonder whether this was brought up and does anyone know when the findings of the 2020 summit will be publically available? pretty important considering (I guess that) taxpayers paid some consultants big biccies to facilitate it. I would like to own that consultancy!

 

[2020hindsight]

pretty important considering (I guess that) taxpayers paid some consultants big biccies to facilitate it. I would like to own that consultancy!

evidence?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/26/2199708.htm?section=australia
We want you: PM calls for 2020 summit volunteers
By Alexandra Kirk
Posted Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:14pm AEDT
Updated Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:39pm AEDT

The new world order of Kevin Rudd has meant a jump in the workload for the bureaucracy in Canberra - one of earlier starts, later finishes and more demands.

Now as the Prime Minister looks towards 2020 and what it might hold for Australia, public servants are being asked to volunteer for 20 hours of unpaid work.

Australia's best and brightest 1,000 people will receive their invitations this week to his 2020 ideas summit.

Their job is to come up with big picture ideas on the challenges for the nation's next decade. The understanding is they pay their own way.

 

[doogie_goes_off]

Not the phrase "I guess that", based on the fact that whilst working in state government based service that I went through a process that used the same format. Maybe they used their own goverment staff - you would like to think they saved money somewhere.

 

[2020hindsight]

Not the phrase "I guess that", based on the fact ,,,,.

maybe time to check your facts there doogie

ps I presume you mean "note the phrase 'I guess that'" - either way a guess is a guess and a fact is a fact.

Of course there was some expenditure - probably considerable expenditure, but it wasn't on consultants as you inferred / stated (based on that link I posted anyways).

 

[doogie_goes_off]

Nice article 2020HS, I don't like to read too much media and am probably too influence by the pictures on the ABC news. Do you think the 2020 summit was successful?

 

[doogie_goes_off]

Yes I meant "note the phrase", for what it's worth my sub-editor is away and I'm at home with the dog, she can't spell either so I'm left with my wits (or lack of?)

 

[Julia]

I don't really have great expectations of any government.The best we can hope for is they be good caretakers.

Good caretakers? That's all you expect Boyou? No innovation, no fixing of problems, no planning for the future?

I don't expect government can FIX petrol prices any more than they can keep inflation or interest rates under control.

No, they can't influence interest rates, except insofar as they should have policies to limit inflation. e.g. despite rising inflation - leading to increasing interest rates - they are persisting with the plan to hand out inflationary tax cuts.
This is populist government at its best. It would be possible to divert those tax cuts into superannuation, which would still deliver the benefit to the people but be far less inflationary. So, they can in fact indirectly affect interest rates.

I want a government that is at least asking questions and listening for answers.

No one is arguing with that. What some of us are suggesting is that all this listening stuff is merely a political exercise, a feel good thing if you like.
As I said earlier, we will see what big ideas from this weekend are listened to and implemented. Given that Mr Rudd has suggested the idea makers may expect to hear about whether or not their ideas will be pursued by the end of this year, it's entirely likely that some other talkfest will have shifted the focus of the citizens by then. Even just the US elections. Doesn't much matter what it is. Our focus is usually very short term.

This government is providing the forum for some of us to ask the questions..the answers will take time.

Ok, fine. I remain sceptical.

It is a bit like this forum we are all on ..sometimes you don't know there was a question,till someone raises it...Let's just wait and see.Please don't underestimate the intellect and heart of Aussies!

I don't at all. But neither do I overestimate the heart and honesty of politicians.
Perhaps I just need an idealism transplant.