Is Julia Gillard the new Bob Hawke?
It probably hasn’t escaped folks’ attention that Julia Gillard has expanded the scope of her rhetoric about being consultative beyond the issues of governance, cabinet processes and caucus decision making. In all the statements she’s made since becoming PM, she’s [...]
Tony Abbott's Ideas Summit
Business Spectator reports: Opposition Leader Tony Abbott will hold an ideas forum on Friday in much the same vein as Kevin Rudd’s famed 2020 summit. But he insists it will be more than a glorified photo opportunity. The roundtable is [...]
"The Future By Us" looks a lot like the present
At 32, perhaps it’s just that I’m no longer considered “yoof”, but I’ve always been dubious of the notion that there are great undiscovered pearls of wisdom in the “best and brightest” of our young people just waiting to be [...]
2020 response open thread
Well, here it is – the government’s response to the 2020 summit, all 262 pages of it. Judging from my quick perusal of the sustainability section, prepare to be underwhelmed. For instance, the fairly uncontroversial proposals on public transport on [...]
Guest post by Jeff Sparrow: The 2020 Summit anniversary
From today’s Crikey — Jeff Sparrow of Overland writes: It’s quite astonishing that the public figure who yesterday pointed out that the deadline for Kevin Rudd’s response to ideas from his 2020 summit had quietly come and gone was Peter [...]
Howard kills Republic… again
There’s a story in the News Limited tabloids today suggesting that any plebiscite for a Republic is to go on the backburner, because Kevin Rudd fears that there would be a voter backlash in economic hard times. Backbencher Mark Dreyfus [...]
Australian cultural policy; and whatever happened to the 2020 summit?
I wrote in an earlier post about the “summer of culture” feature at New Matilda. Ben Eltham has now wrapped up “the state of the cultural nation” with a thoughtful essay integrating the various pieces with some broader thoughts on [...]
Peter Garrett and the ANAM defunding debacle
There’s been a bit of discussion about Arts Minister Peter Garrett’s defunding of the Australian National Academy of Music on another thread, so I think it probably warrants a post of its own. Long time observers of arts and cultural [...]
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