1002 Australians took part in the Australia 2020 Summit which saw Australia’s best and brightest converge on Australia’s houses of government to participate in a ‘conversation for the future’. A delegate at the summit gives us his views
For cricket fans everywhere, it was a weekend of 2020. A historic moment in which cricket was arguably revolutionised. For Australians, a country of cricket fans, the weekend was twice as ‘2020’ and twice as historic, for in Australia, the Federal Government held its first ‘experimental’ 2020 Summit.
Attendees included Australia’s richest man, Andrew Forrest (Fortescue Metals), internationally recognised Australians such as Hugh Jackman, Cate Blanchett and Lachlan Murdoch, Indigenous Australians, carers and people with disabilities. The summit itself was broken into 10 streams, each dealing with a significant area in Australia’s future development. From Australia’s Productivity Agenda to Sustainability and Climate Change, delegates were asked to bring one or two ‘big ideas’ with them, presumably with the aim of shaping a new future for Australia.
Over the weekend, the 1002 delegates created a vision for Australia in 2020 focusing on a socially inclusive society, with the best education and health systems in the world, based on a strong and inclusive national, and republican, identity, delivering Australia’s full productive potential and setting up Australia as a world leader in diplomacy, and innovation. In addition, the delegates developed a list of ideas for Australia’s future that included developing a ‘wellness footprint’ that similarly to the ‘eco footprint’ would rate health policies, projects and businesses on how they contribute to the ‘wellness’ of individuals and a ‘learning for life’ account, whereby governments would make payments for education, parental leave, and superannuation contributions into an account, which had the capacity to go into deficit and where repayment was contingent on income.
Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, in opening the Summit, commented: ‘What we[the government] are looking for from this Summit are new ideas for our nation’s future’. Both these ideas, like many of the others, could be revolutionary in Australia. However, there was no opportunity for the groups to discuss the viability of their ideas, to cost their ideas, or to set out policy initiatives. So the question becomes:
Can an idea lacking specificity be a good idea? Is an idea that isn’t practical or implementable similar to a spoon that’s too large to fit in your mouth? The Youth Summit the week before had an more detailed process where delegates developed their ideas, listed measurable objectives, estimated expenditure and developed the necessary policy. This allowed real debate about whether ideas were credible, and meant that ideas could be tested in plenary. If the youth delegates could do it, then there is no reason why the leaders in Australian business and society couldn’t do it, and the failure to integrate this process into the 2020 Summit undermined it’s value.
In the week leading up to the summit, media and the cynics pondered whether this was just going to be a ‘talkfest’ that led to no commitments, and no action. To that question, we’ll have to wait for an answer. However, even if we decide that the summit was just a talkfest, the summit represented a quantum leap in how government engaged the citizenry in Australia. For the first time in Australia, the halls of parliament became spaces for Australia’s social, economic and cultural leaders to debate and discuss issues that they were passionate about. Participatory democracy, an ideal condition in democracy, is not something that many countries have successfully cultivated, and the 2020 Summit doesn’t by itself demonstrate Australia’s competency. However this high-level community consultation was revolutionary. What was even more revolutionary was the conversation that it started in the rest of the country. As one delegate put it: ‘For the first time, people are meeting new people and asking them, not what they do or where they are from, but rather what ideas they have.’
What’s more difficult to explain to a non-Australian audience is the prevalence of this shift around the country in the last six weeks. The announcement of the 2020 Summit started a conversation in Australia that forced people to imagine, to envision their ideal 2020 and the ideas needed to get there. As I personally discovered, the world saving ideas that you have in the shower or on the toilet are much more difficult to articulate when they may be tested by people who most likely know much more than you. Nevertheless, in two months more than 8000 ideas were received from the general public. In this sense: ‘the 2020 summit was a success even before it started because it started a conversation that Australia has never had before.’ one delegate commented. From my perspective, this fact was and still is blatantly obvious wherever you go in Australia. ‘People are having one conversation, all over the country.’
If properly nurtured and promoted the Australia 2020 Summit could be the beginning of a process leading to innovation in Australian democracy. And wouldn’t that be something to write home about? The 2020 Summit already represents a revolution in community consultation, and with commitment from the participants, the conversation has the potential to sustain itself. Leadership from the Prime Minister through quick and real commitment to some of the ideas will add to the power of this conversation and the key point to this discussion is that if nothing comes out of the summit, if the summit is ‘just’ a talkfest, then the premise of a truly participative democracy will be undermined.
So was the summit just another talkfest? Perhaps. Was it a brilliant publicity tool, highlighting the Australian Government’s community engagement credentials? Perhaps. But does it represent a shift in the traditional machinery of a representative democracy? Most certainly. Having been to both the Youth Summit and the full 2020 Summit, the value of such a process should not be undermined. Having the leaders of business, politics and society in one venue having one conversation from a diversity of viewpoints is the basis of a participative democracy, and something that should be pursued with vigour.
Siddhartha Chakrabarti is a co-ordinator for Youth Speak in Australia. He is also delegate of the Australia 2020 Youth Summit and the wider 2020 summit as well.