Kevin Rudd & “Australian Ideas”: Lesson For Obama-McCain …

All nations face challenges that, at times, defy easy solutions. What to do? Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, soon after his victory, invited in April this year 1,000 “brightest” among his countrymen for an “ideas summit” to look at the challenges and develop key goals for Australia.

In May a comprehensive report was released. Cynics may view it as a routine popular gesture, but the report is worth a read.

More than 1,000 Australians responded to an invitation from the Prime Minister and came to Parliament House in Canberra for the ’2020 Summit’, a gathering with the purpose of discussing the agenda for the nation. “To help shape a long-term strategy for the nation’s future, and tackle challenges confronting Australia.

“The people who attended came from diverse backgrounds—some eminent in a specialized field; others ordinary Australians. Among them were farmers, scientists, health professionals, artists and actors, community leaders and lawyers.

“Common to all of them was a genuine interest in and commitment to shaping the future of the nation. They came together to talk about 10 major policy challenges facing the country.”

Kevin Rudd has introduced a novel idea in participatory democracy (especially when the established democratic institutions are not responding that well), and the idea is worth emulating by world leaders, including the US presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain.

The Summit report says: “By 2020 Australia would have developed into an effective middle power democracy that values and upholds human rights, strong communities and a sustainable environment, strongly supports the United Nations, and draws on the expertise in civil society.

“Australia will need to cultivate a model of middle power diplomacy that encourages a multilateral framework…Australia is a model international good citizen committed to the rule of law, peaceful resolution of differences and sustainable global economic and social systems based on democratic principles and, importantly, practice.”

What’s new? Maybe not. But do we have to keep looking for something new all the time? We also need to remind ourselves regularly of the basic time-honored tenets of democracy and international law, which in recent times have been rarely visible. Leaders do not have all the solutions to the tricky problems…they need to reach out to diverse set of people.

And that’s what Kevin Rudd has done. For the full Summit 2020 report please click here…

What do the participants present at the April summit think? Here is one example. Says Prof Robert Manne: “By summit’s end, the Howard era seemed to have vanished into history. To judge by applause during the plenary sessions, even nearly 12 years of Howard had clearly not killed off enthusiasm for projects central to the national cultural trajectory over the past 40 years: reconciliation, closer engagement with Asia, multiculturalism, expanding civil rights, the republic.

“Of course, there is a danger here of political-optical illusion. It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the enthusiasms of ‘the best and the brightest’ do not represent the general mood. In his noble attempt to reshape the nation’s culture, Paul Keating never understood this. I have no doubt that Kevin Rudd does.

“While Keating’s striking Redfern speech probably had, on balance, an alienating impact on public opinion, the depth and deftness of Rudd’s February speech on the Stolen Generations converted many Australians to the idea of an apology.

“What had the Summit achieved? One thousand members of the political class had assembled for a weekend. The atmosphere was generally optimistic; the process, frenzied and chaotic. Over that time hundreds of ideas had been produced.

“Some were fundamental: the republic, the bill of rights, a compact or treaty between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, a new federation commission, a national development index concerning social inclusion, a national endowment fund for the arts, an entire overhaul of the tax system, a seamless national economy…

“There were disagreements: over new coal-power stations and GM food. And there were puzzling omissions. In the Indigenous stream’s report there was no mention of alcohol or child sexual abuse. By the end of the year, the Rudd government will have responded to each idea. What will be accomplished by all this, God alone knows. Only one thing seems clear.

“Rudd’s summit signalled the end of the era of the breakdown of relations between government and all but a small circle of the intelligentsia. Bill Heffernan thought the summit ‘therapeutic’. He was right.” See here…

The US, too, needs a therapeutic dose…