The insecurities and threats of 2030 are clear. A Europe at war not within its borders, but struggling to cope with forces beyond its borders. Global capital, people and goods with whom it has not made peace. Religious extremism and division on its doorstep. Energy insecurity and climate change which threatens our security as well as our prosperity. Conflict and instability in regions where we have economic as well as moral interests.

To avoid that future, we need to base our next generation Europe on four principles... [First] is that we must keep ourselves open - open to trade, open to ideas and open to investment. [Second] we should use the power of shared institutions and shared activities to help overcome religious, regional, and cultural divides, especially with the Islamic world... [Third] a model power should champion international law and human rights not just internally, but externally too. We need to live by our values and principles beyond our borders, not just within them... [Fourth] any model power in the 21st century must be a low carbon power, so the European Union must become an Environmental Union. . . read more

1. How we can build a strong foundation for future prosperity, in a global economy that will be transformed by the rise of China and India and other developing economies; and how we ensure our prosperity does not rest only on the ups and downs of commodity markets but also on what we can craft out of our human capital.
2. How we can have the best educated, best skilled, best trained workforce in the world – a workforce whose innovation and ingenuity drives productivity growth forward.
3. How we respond to the enormous challenge of climate change and become a leader in tomorrow’s lower carbon energy revolution.
4. How we ensure a strong future for rural industries and rural communities at a time when the world, once again is debating the possibility of global food shortages.
5. How we develop a long-term national health strategy – and don’t simply surrender to the trend of rising chronic disease rates. But instead say, ‘there is a different way of doing this’
6. How we build stronger communities, stronger families and a society that works hard, not to leave any single Australian behind.
7. How we close the gap on Indigenous disadvantage and ensure life opportunities for Indigenous Australians, comparable to those enjoyed by all Australians. That should be our goal.
8. How we build a creative arts industry that reflect Australia’s unique story that carries our unique culture to the rest of the world.
9. How we reform our system of governance for the needs of the 21st Century rather than perpetuating some of the structures from the 19th Century.
10. How we ensure Australia’s future security and prosperity in a rapidly changing region and world. [More]

Defence expert, Ross Babbage tries to help us out by saying, "We’re talking about a new security paradigm – learning to walk among giants". Walking under water? Really? But if ravens cannot fly under water, why should we be able to walk? And are there really giants down there, anyway?

Truth is Ross, you’re just living up to your name. It’s plainly daft for us to have even one submarine. Can’t our PM come up with a real paradigm shift and find better things for us to do with our money?  . . read more

By 2020 Australia will be making a major contribution to a comprehensive global response to climate change, including working with our partners on clean energy. Australia will have dramatically reduced our emissions, and communities, regions and business will be actively assisted to adopt the unavoidable consequences of climate change.

Environmental considerations will be fully integrated into economic decision making in Australia, at the household, business and government levels. We will have resilient and innovative water systems that reduce our dependency on climate-sensitive water resources in our towns and cities.

A robust emissions trading system and a suite of complementary measures will be driving a low carbon revolution with Government taking the lead working in partnership with business and the community. Climate and sustainability policy will also incorporate the needs of disadvantaged and low-income Australians. A new dialogue will have been established with our indigenous peoples on our response to climate change, water and sustainability challenges. . . read more

The spectre of the thought police pulling down Bill Henson’s show in Sydney is now followed by the red necked council of Camden in Sydney’s south rejecting the creation of a 1200 student Islamic school ‘based on concerns surrounding the impact on traffic flows, loss of agricultural land, highlighted in the planners report and not on religious grounds.’ Oh yeh!

Our hopes for a more progressive Australia following the heinous Howard regime have been seriously dented in just 5 days. Where is the leadership promised by the Australia 2020 summit? It is certainly absent from the mealy-mouthed Front Bench.

Attention now shifts ironically to the Opposition where shadow treasurer Malcolm Turnbull is the lone progressive voice in a sea of mediocrity. He has the guts to point out the precious nature of our artistic freedoms which are being sorely pressed by political ratbags and the citizens of Middle Earth.  . . read more

This is the challenge which we face right now. To see the world around us with new eyes and to create a story which changes the anonymity we are so used to with a new personality, perhaps one that draws on our indigenous history and the diversity of our people. . . read more

There is another view, another vision — and it is our vision — which says that this nation and this people are at their best when we are a people and a nation committed to building a prosperous nation while at the same time not jettisoning our vision for a fair Australia and a fair society. In an absolute nutshell that is the divide between us — a view of the world which says it is about me, myself and I, and an alternative view which says that we are about an Australia which, sure, recognises that individual hard work, achievement and success are to be encouraged and rewarded but, at the same time, that we cannot turn a blind eye to the interests of our fellow human beings who are not doing well.

That has been the divide between us for a century and remains the divide between us today. Ideas in politics are important. They in fact affect everything that we do. They shape our vision of what is possible for the government to do for the nation. . . read more

The X factor in this result was the effect of the prevailing economic catastrophism: would voters take the conservative option of voting Yes to avoid the danger of deepening the crisis with political uncertainty? In the end it was the most at-risk sections of the population who delivered the most decisive No. The problem for the Treaty was that it was all too easy for voters to connect Ireland’s present economic woes to its role in Europe.

As unemployment leaps, it calls attention to all the east-European immigrants working here; as previously astronomic house prices collapse, the president of the European Central Bank announces a coming rise in interest rates; as farmers worry about their futures, the EU negotiates at the WTO to allow more South American beef into European markets; as fishermen despairing of high fuel prices stage protest blockades at key ports, they complain about EU-imposed fishing quotas that force them to dump tons of their catches.

A No vote does nothing to address any of these issues; indeed few of them even figured prominently in the campaign. But voting No was the means at hand to complain about them. [More] . . read more

In the wake of his defeat the attacks on Howard's legacy will turn ferocious, but at their heart will be an unease, a ritual exorcism of something deeper that Australians would perhaps rather not admit. For a decade Howard's power had resided in his ability to speak directly and powerfully to the great negativity at the core of the Australian soul - its timidity, its conformity, its fear of other people and new ideas, its colonial desire to ape rather than lead, its shame that sometimes seems close to a terror of the uniqueness of its land and people.

At the end of his concession speech, Howard claimed to have left Australia prouder, stronger and more prosperous. But it didn't feel that way. It felt like it had been a lost decade. It felt like the country was frightened, unsure of what it now is, unready for the great changes it must make, and ill-fitted for the robust debates it must have. There was a strange sense that Australia, which had seemed so often to sleepwalk, mesmerised, through the past 11 years, had suddenly woken up. But where it might go and what it might do and be, no one any longer knew.

From The Guardian. Richard Flanagan is a novelist. . . read more

Ironically, he and his family may be well-served by staying away and avoiding the close attention they would receive from the media. We, however, need to expiate the sins perpetrated on our behalf - just as we need to see David Hicks walking among us - a (relatively) free man. These small acts are all part of the imaginative forward leap which we are taking  towards a better future. . . read more