2020

The nation is abuzz with talk of Kevin Rudd's Australia 2020 Summit (not to be confused with Twenty20)- designed to be an assembly of Australia's best and brightest and an opportunity to develop new ideas for Australia's future.

Everyone appears to have an opinion on this thing. It's difficult to see what 1000 people can accomplish in a day and a half, but the idea of citizen committees (even if many of those ordinary citizens are members of the elite) seems like a step forward in the democratic process. Given there were over 7000 nominations(including myself) for those 1000 spots, there are undoubtedly a large number of disgruntled people who were snubbed and therefore feel free to throw rocks at the process (some of us met for dinner last night and chucked a few stones ourselves). Yet, it should be noted that anyone was allowed to submit submissions to the process electronically. Despite criticism, living in a country where the government provides the entire nation with an opportunity to submit ideas is quite brave and refreshing.

Interestingly, in small public opinion poll prior to the summit, the biggest issue flagged as being "the most important problem facing the country" was the environment.