Shared priorities at 2020
This is an edited excerpt from the Initial Report of the 2020 Summit, held in Canberra on the 19/20 April. The full report is available as a PDF under 'downloads' on this page.
Date: 21 April 2008
Our ways of doing government arrived with European settlement. We are still evolving in ways related to the manner of settlement, our Indigenous people, the nature of the continent and the character of Australians.
For many decades, necessitated by a small population scattered across a huge and ancient land, Australian politics was often about public works - the building of railroads, pipelines, communications infrastructure such as the Adelaide-Darwin telegraph line and the Snowy hydro scheme. Australians had to develop what has been called – controversially – a 'talent for bureaucracy'.
This history has left Australians with a faith that the public sphere has a crucial role in building the nation’s future. Yet in twenty-first century Australia, there is a sense that the role of government is changing.
Meanwhile, markets have altered our lives significantly, changing our sense of ourselves, colonising our imagination, changing our expectations about what constitutes the good life. They have brought many benefits. Yet they can be disconcerting to people who lose out, and the further extension of markets in areas such as child care remains contested. For some people, there are realms of activities markets should not enter.
Demographics, technology change, and global environmental challenges go to the fundamental questions about the role of government and of the nation, a question to which the answers had seemed obvious.
There is a sense of a nation at a significant point in history, where shifting global balances of economic power will affect Australia’s place in the world. There is a great opportunity in the shift of economic power to Asia and the Pacific – provided we use our geography, economy and cultural resources to create and nurture profound links.
Many of our conversations during this Summit have touched on these issues. There is an expectation civil society will strengthen as government becomes less central in our lives. Yet many perceive in climate change, or the response to Indigenous Australia, exactly the national challenges that require choices through collective public action.
Four key issues have dominated the Summit, crossing over most streams. Each is easy to state, but will require complex policy design, negotiation and involvement of the people of Australia to achieve meaningful change.
Dealing with a Changing Climate
In his opening address, the Governor-General noted the far-reaching ramifications of possible climate changes as rainfall patterns change. Agriculture, cities and sustainability are all affected, as is Australia’s place in the world when we negotiate international carbon trading systems and manage with the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions from other nations.
There is no single policy which can respond to every aspect of climate change. Rather, the Summit discussion suggested almost every aspect of policy choice will be affected by the drive toward sustainability. Climate change is the overarching issue this generation and those to follow, must address, and it will shape the context influencing much done by individuals, government and private organisations.
Also clear in the Summit discussion was a concern as to how adapting to climate change will affect the already disadvantaged in our communities.
A National Approach
The second shared topic was a strong push across streams for a consistent national approach, particularly in economic policy. In particular, numerous inefficiencies in the Australian economy were identified flowing from differences between states and territories. Participants believe it is time to drive for a seamless national economy. This will mean single national markets and approaches in key areas such as taxation, energy and transport.
As with addressing climate change, creating single national markets sounds simple and manageable but is in practice a matter of huge complexity. It requires thinking not just about headline policies such as major regulation, but countless aspects of government involvement in society – from rules about environmental health and safety, through the way we pay for and organise education and training, through to the axle weights permitted for heavy trucks.
Developing People
It is striking how often through the Summit concern arose that Australia has not been sufficiently clever in using the skills and ingenuity of our people. Early childhood services and education are obvious starting points for building capacity, but many argued a broader case for investment in a healthy population with access to necessary social support.
For a number of streams, this focus on developing our human capital led to wider issues – migration, skills shortages, participation of women, access to child care, family leave, support for disabilities. One strongly held view was the need to enhance creativity and innovation in our communities. People find meaning in their lives through expression, and our nation benefits from innovation. These can happen spontaneously, but many argue for an education system which encourages and trains for creativity, a community willing to accept risk and failure in pursuit of the new, and governments rethinking how and why they support creative Australia.
Strengthening Civil Society
A major theme at the Summit was the urgency of redressing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disadvantage and to embrace the range of indigenous and non-indigenous stories which are our culture. Across many streams, it was discussed as a prerequisite to Australia’s further development.
The 2020 Summit also heard from many voices keen to recognise the world outside government – the work of the 700,000 not-for-profit organisations operating in Australia, the role of the media in creating space for public conversations, the capacity of our people through better access to education and training, encouraging creativity and recognising the skills of artists and writers in connecting individual experience to global trends.
This desire to enrich the relationships in communities by encouraging a strong role for new organisations and approaches is a major opportunity for Australia. It can be characterised as strengthening civil society – using government to encourage a broader view of how our community works. The individual proposals at the Summit to generate non-government initiatives were many and varied. The hope that philanthropy might find a firmer home in Australia, and become an accepted part of corporate and individual life, captures best this shared aspiration for a world in which a vigorous civil sector stands, separate from government, and allows greater depth and range in our community. Not every problem can or should be solved by government, but encouraging society to trust in its own judgement, and act in its own right is our challenge.
Elements of these four overarching themes emerge in each of the reports to follow. Responding to climate change, creating a seamless economy through a national approach, developing people, and strengthening civil society, taken together, articulate the vision for this nation expressed by many at the Australia 2020 Summit.
