Deliberations

The Rudd Government has released its response to its 2020 Summit, held in April 2008. Rather than responding at the end of the year as promised, it has responded at the end of a year. It's an illustration of the sidestepping that has occurred. There has been little blogged about the response. News commentators have treated it superficially. Some would rather talk about the shift to a republic. Yawn. Fizz. The Government's claim that the global financial crisis has hijacked the agenda is accepted blithely. But that's silly, as future visioning is exactly what we need in these troubled times. Many fine people attended the Summit. The nine ideas that the Government has selected to support are admirable. I care about how the Government engages with citizens. So my attention turns to the response to ideas in the governance stream. There were several ideas put forward that related to enhancing participatory democracy, where citizens are more than just consulted or heard. What is called for is active citizenship, where ordinary people work directly with experts to solve difficult social, economic and environmental problems.

In its response, the Government agrees with the idea of enhancing community engagement. The Government’s approach is to trial different and innovative mechanisms and draw on specific suggestions across several streams in that context.

The Government is also considering holding a set of forums that will bring together experts, business and community representatives and others with a strong interest in a number of topics to promote a collaborative approach to challenging issues and better inform government decision making.

The problem is that Rudd prefers to hand the agenda and its solution to a hand-picked elite. Instead, the country would benefit from a bottom-up approach to tackle some of our toughest issues. I don't think Rudd trusts the capacity of a randomly-selected group of ordinary people, led by qualified facilitators who know how to help them collaborate productively. Most countries with governments that promoted free markets and global trade are now having to intervene in their own economies with stimulus packages and bank guarantees. Just like corporate enterprise (didn't) look after us, should we now be placing all our trust in old-style paternalistic policy-setting? Citizens could be very handy in lending government some legitimacy in these troubled times. Instead of just stuffing money into our bank accounts, there could have been other stimulating suggestions that don't send the Treasury so far into the red, yet still yielded political capital for the Government. I wonder if Rudd and his Cabinet trust the jury system? It seems to work pretty well in bringing the values and beliefs of ordinary citizens into decision-making. The 2020 Summit is now wrapped up as a success, promoting the view that 1000 Australian idols can lead us forward. The general lack of innovation shows that they are just as trapped in current paradigms as we all are. With their own self-interest, they did little to understand each other or come to common ground. Time for something really different. Let's have forums that draw a microcosm of ordinary people with diverse beliefs, aspirations and cultural backgrounds. They need to deliberate and innovate, not just brainstorm from established positions. The Internet and social networking can help us all communicate better. We need forums with more creativity and less self-interest than was demonstrated by the very nice people who attended 2020.

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