2020 hindsight

So there's been a lot of noise from Stephen & Laurel & others about the Australia 2020 Summit. Frankly they are welcome to it. Because these things are about timing.

Australia is not in a place to ask any questions about 2020 let alone answer them. The 2007 election was fought on a common platform by both parties: "We will stuff things up less than the other guys". We are still doing rather nicely from the commodities boom. Australia will only be able to define its future when it can work out what it should be. And it will only be able to do that when it faces an existential crisis brought on by declining commodity revenues.

Let me tell you what I think Australia's future should be. Australia is at the edge (or arse-end) of the world. Frankly no one cares about us. Which is good. It gives us a freedom. An opportunity to innovate & experiment should we choose to do so. If we take our position as an edge culture seriously, if we own our outcast nature rather than reject it then the future is ours to invent. We need to cast of the last vestiges of our anglo conservatism and recognise that none of us can go back to a 50s semi-rural world. And our future will be different to our present.

The best the 2020 Summit can do is float some tenative suggestions around that future - upturn a conceptual apple cart or two - but its immediate impact will be minimal. The rest of us will be biding our time...