Introduction: So what’s this Topic 9 thing?

Hi, I’m Stilgherrian. You may know me from my personal website or my recent writing in Crikey. Or you may know me from my previous media life in Adelaide. You may know me in other ways. Or maybe you don’t know me at all. Whatever. Hello. Let me tell you what we’re doing here…

When Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the Australia 2020 Summit I was quietly enthused. After a decade of Howard’s backward-looking short-term thinking we were actually going to look to the future. My thoughts riffed off those of Maxine McKew and Mark Pesce and I boldly proclaimed Australia, let the Enlightenment begin!

I was particularly excited because one of the discussion panels was going to tackle the very nature of Australia’s democracy.

I’d recently read the book Watching Brief: reflections on human rights, law, and justice by human rights lawyer Julian Burnside, which highlighted precisely how John “Miserable Toad” Howard had eroded basic human rights. Not only was there a chance to undo the Toad’s work, we could actually move our nation’s democracy beyond our clunky steam-driven Federation-era Constitution and embrace the possibilities of the Internet Age.

The full description of the topic area was promising:

The Australian Government is committed to greater access to freedom of information, effective parliamentary reform and removing as many dysfunctional dimensions to the Australian Federation as possible. The Government is also examining ways in which Australians can increasingly deliberate in the making of government policy through a range of mechanisms, including community cabinets, as a part of a commitment to contemporary democracy.

The Australia 2020 Summit will examine:

• How best to implement an effective an agenda of open government which best balances the legitimate requirements of the media and the confidentiality requirements of cabinet government in the Westminster system
• How best to engaged the community in government decision making
• What forms of Federation reform are appropriate for the future to maximise outcomes for the economy and the community
• How to ensure the future viability of local government operations and infrastructure provision.

I was inspired. I wanted to be part of this. I sent off my application. And then the disappointment set in.

Lobbyists for specific sectors started whinging about lack of representation. Kevin Rudd’s political management of the lead-up — invitations to journalists and random members of the public via talkback radio — led to serious disillusionment in some quarters.

Still, I remained optimistic. I countered the pessimists with an appeal to Australia’s national character:

I don’t think we should write off the Summit just yet. These are Australians we’re talking about. If the Steering Committee tries to shut down true ideas-generation, I reckon our “best and brightest” will fight back with vigour.

Even when I discovered that Miranda Devine counted as “best and brightest” I maintained my positivism.

I still believe that there’s value in this Australia 2020 Summit. After all, we have 1000 people gathered for a specific focus, and the media spotlight will be upon them. Their dialogue has yet to begin, but already the conversation is rippling through the community — and I’ll point to all that in a later post.

I have yet to decide specifically what I’ll do with the Summit but tonight, at least, I’ll start the journey to Canberra metaphorically if not geographically. Even though I wasn’t selected as a delegate, I’ll still focus my thoughts and energies on that weekend, and on the themes of Topic 9.

This website is where I’ll tell the story of that journey — perhaps adding the stories of people I meet along the way, and hopefully your stories too. I’ll spend some time at BarCampSydney 3 discussing how technology and government interact. I’m hoping that’ll help shape this website into a “new media” [ugh] operation that does something with the Australia 2020 Summit and then beyond.

Gosh. How does all that sound?