Speech Transcript

Voices of the Future - 2020 Schools Summits

14 March 2008

Hi, my name's Julia Gillard and I'm the federal Minister for education.

It's great that you're going to be part of the Schools Summit, joining students from right around Australia in discussing the big challenges that our country is going to face in the future.

The Schools Summit is all about getting young Australians, like you - the adults of 2020, invo0lved in tackling these challenges head on. We're looking forward to hearing your thought and ideas to help shape Australia's future and make this an even better place to live in 2020.

The Schools Summit is a key part of Australia 2020 - your ideas will be fed into the summit bringing together one thousand of Australia's best and brightest to talk about exactly the same things you're going to discuss in your summit today.

Now I'm going to hand over to the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to tell you a bit more about why we're holding the Australia 2020 Summit and why it's such an important event for Australia.

Hi, I’m Kevin Rudd.

In April this year the Australian Government will open the doors of Parliament House in Canberra to 1000 Australians so we can hear their ideas about some of the biggest problems and biggest opportunities that Australia faces in the future. It’s called the Australia 2020 Summit and people from all walks of life, from right across the national, will be attending.

The aim of the Australia 2020 Summit is simple – to get the best ideas from everyone about the things that are going to make Australia an even better country to live in 12 years from now. I’m interested in concrete policy solutions - things that can really make a difference - that can make Australia an even better place to live in.

I’m interested in new ideas about how we run our hospitals, how our schools and universities work, how we protect our environment, how we look after and support Australian families and communities and how we ensure a future for our farmers and much, much more.

This is why we’re inviting schools right across the country to hold their own Summits. We really want to hear your ideas and to get a good understanding on how you’d like Australia to look in the year 2020.

After all, the decisions that Australia makes in the next few years will shape, not just Australia’s future, but your own future. If you are ten today, you’ll be 22 in the year 2020. If you’re finishing school, you’ll be around 30 years of age in 2020. Either way, you are our next generation of leaders and your voices, your ideas and your opinions are critical to Australia’s future.

The ideas that come out of your meeting today will be submitted to a Youth Summit to held in Canberra. From there, ten young Australians will be selected to attend the 2020 Summit in April as youth representatives.

Thanks very much for taking part in this important conversation. Please make the most of this opportunity. On behalf of the Australian Government I say – we’re listening to you.