From the Vice-Chancellor

[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 3, No. 2  12 May - 9 June 2008 ]

A National Conversation

Australia has the beginnings of a national conversation. It didn’t just emerge at the two-day Australia 2020 Summit but started weeks before with participants logging their ideas on the Summit’s interactive website.

In Canberra, they worked in groups, large and small, in all corners of Parliament House – in formal committee rooms, staff dining rooms, corridors – exploring wide-ranging ideas for the future of our country.

They were volunteers, people who participated because they shared a view that ideas matter and are worth developing.

Standing behind the 1002 Summiteers was another group of 210 volunteers – liaison officers, scribes and runners, and senior facilitators from the private sector who gave their time pro bono.

Nothing quite like this had been done before. There was no model to follow so the talented Summit organisers designed their own. There was a lot to be achieved in just two days, but general agreement was that it worked well.

The Summit wasn’t about instant solutions. Rather it was an opportunity to highlight core emerging issues that this government, and future governments, will need to think about. Just imagine how much closer to solutions we could be if the critical importance of climate change had been recognised earlier.

The Initial Report handed to the Prime Minister at the end of the Summit – and now on the Summit website www.australia2020.gov.au – gives some glimpses of the conversation to date.

There were many Summit highlights, but one that is special to the University of Melbourne was the remarkable opening speech made by Sana Nakata, an Indigenous PhD student, who also shone in the unenviable task of following the Prime Minister as the final speaker of the Summit.

What is clear from the conversations all weekend and over recent weeks, online and in person, is the strong interest across Australia in being part of a long-term discussion about our country and its future. That discussion pays little heed to partisan lines. It is a conversation that can sometimes bypass interest groups, institutions and media.

That some streams were still arguing vigorously as their final sessions closed is a sure sign conversations will continue; that the business started at the Summit has a way to run.


Glyn Davis

Professor Davis was co-convener of the Australia 2020 Summit.

Sana Nakata’s speech is at uninews.unimelb.edu.au/articleid_5149.html