Australia ICOMOS Special E-Mail News No. 322


Australia 2020 Summit

Few Australians will have missed the announcement by the Prime Minister about the Australia 2020 Summit, to be held 19-20 April 2008 in Canberra.

One thousand invited individuals will participate in the Summit, which is structured around 10 'critical areas' identified by the new Federal Government:
1. Future directions for the Australian economy - including education, skills, training, science and innovation as part of the nation's productivity agenda
2. Economic infrastructure, the digital economy and the future of our cities
3. Population, sustainability, climate change and water
4. Future directions for rural industries and rural communities
5. A long-term national health strategy - including the challenges of preventative health, workforce planning and the ageing population
6. Strengthening communities, supporting families and social inclusion
7. Options for the future of Indigenous Australia
8. Towards a creative Australia: the future of the arts, film and design
9. The future of Australian governance: renewed democracy, a more open government (including the role of the media), the structure of Federation and the rights and responsibilities of citizens
10. Australia's future security and prosperity in a rapidly changing region and world.

Although none of these issues seems to focus specifically on Australia's heritage, our interests, expertise and ideas are very relevant to many of the questions being posed. Australia ICOMOS, and other cultural heritage NGOs have written to the Minister about this, urging the Government to ensure that heritage interests and ideas are included in the Summit.

The Summit is aimed at individual participation, rather than representation from organisations, and there is a straightforward process for individuals to nominate themselves. The Australia ICOMOS Executive Committee encourages members to nominate for the Summit, particularly if they feel that they can promote the relevance of heritage in these specific aspects of public policy, and have ideas to contribute that can be clearly linked to the selected topics.

Note that the deadline to submit delegate nomination forms is cob Monday, 25 February. So, if this interests you, you will need to act quickly!

There is also an opportunity to make written submissions to the Summit. These must be 500 words or less per topic, and must be submitted by cob 9 April 2008. Have a look at http://www.australia2020.gov.au/submissions/index.cfm for further information and a form for making submissions. All submissions will be publicly accessible on the website for the Summit.

There is an Australia 2020 website with information about the Summit process and some preliminary explanations about the topics, etc at http://www.australia2020.gov.au/. The nomination form is available at http://www.australia2020.gov.au/nominations/index.cfm#form.


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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in the Australia ICOMOS Email News are not necessarily those of Australia ICOMOS Inc. or its Executive Committee. The text of Australia ICOMOS Email news is drawn from various sources including organizations other than Australia ICOMOS Inc. The Australia ICOMOS Email news serves solely as an information source and aims to present a wide range of opinions which may be of interest to readers. Articles submitted for inclusion may be edited.
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Australia ICOMOS Secretariat
Georgia Meros, Secretariat Officer
Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia and the Pacific
Deakin University
221 Burwood Highway
Burwood Victoria 3125
Telephone: (03) 9251 7131
Facsimile: (03) 9251 7158
Email: austicomos@deakin.edu.au
http://www.icomos.org/australia

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