I was shocked at Rudd's "great idea". We have already experienced the pointlessness of Hawke's concensus talkfest and Howard's republican talkfest. There is no point to bringing the who's who of this country together in a big social.

Whatever you think of Rudd's smart summit (I think it is just a political cover up for Rudd's lack of the plan he said he had), Mirko's article shows the great misunderstanding of human nature and success.

Mirko wants to ask people who have not had success how to succeed because he puts the blame on society rather than individual character and ability. This is wrongheaded, and an essentially disastrous idea, which would put out more bad ideas and lame solutions than a communist convention. Mirko's idea is essentially like asking someone who only played Rugby in the under 9 F's to coach the Wallaby's. It won't ever happen in the Rugby world because the consequences and results are a lot more immediate, but Mirko would try to foist upon society a host of disastrous suggested solutions that would take years to discover their deadly consequences.

I have nominated someone I know for the talkfest. She has outstanding academic qualifications and once held a very prestigious scholarship.
She succeeded in getting one of those UN international years off the ground and is a very active lobbyist for people with disabilities and other disadvantages. She understands the constraints on government and has a sound knowledge of both national and international affairs.
The nomination will almost certainly fail. A small part of that will be due to the fact that I put it in at the last moment. Most of it will be due to the fact that, believe it or not, she is both disabled and 'unemployed' and would require some financial assistance to attend.
As she most certainly does not sit around doing nothing and contributes a heck of a lot more than many people on incomes of $100,000 plus - and contributes in a practical and meaningful way which adds several million dollars value to our foreign aid budget each year - I think she would be the ideal candidate. It will however prove my theory correct - that the talkfest is for the Rudd party faithful who will condone his agenda - when the nomination fails.

It will not come as a surprise that I disagree with Mirko, as I have done so many times before. But, this time, he hasn't got it all wrong.

Although I mostly agree with Grey, I do agree with Mirko that the underprivileged should at least be included in the discussion.

nothing like seeing a torture advocate advance an argument by reference to justice kirby.

When for 12 years Australians have been told that they were wrong unless they agreed with Howard’s point of view it is a tremendous turn around to have people of all sorts of background and expertise being invited to come together to present points of view and learn from each other.
Mirko’s article is negative, destructive and pre-emptive. [a remnant of the Howard tradition?] He has not demonstrated that Rudd is wrong and he appears to be claiming some form of psychic power to know the results of the proposed Australia 2020 Summit.
The fact that all of us, whether rich or poor, have unique life experiences does not devalue our contributions towards a collective vision for a better future.
Mirko should apply his logic to his own output. By your logic what is the point in “writing 20 books and over 100 refereed scholarly articles?!” Are you writing them for an audience of 1- Mirko?