Saturday, April 19, 2008
WINDOWS OPENED, CLOSED
Kevin Rudd launches his 2020 Summit:
Today we are throwing open the windows of our democracy, to let a little bit of fresh air in.
A few hours later, as the SMH’s Annabel Crabb reports:
By late morning they had closed off the Creativity group session to the media ...
UPDATE. The ABC reports: “Blanchett thrilled about new Govt-arts relationship”. Closed doors are symbolic of this.
UPDATE II. SMH summiteer Miranda Devine:
At Friday night’s cocktail party for 2020 Summit participants in Canberra’s National Portrait Gallery, gossip swirled about which groups had given the summit secretariat - the public servants who make it work - the most trouble. Surprise surprise, it was the creatives.
UPDATE III. Kevni’s Ruddfest is a nodfest:
Blanchett set the audience nodding in approval when she stated her belief in ‘a long and meaningful relationship between arts and government’ ...
Dissent is so 1996-2007.
UPDATE IV. Lots more from Andrew Bolt, including:
Barrie Cassidy this morning discussed with Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard only one fresh summit idea - about the only one he could find, I suspect: Teaching children at school how to choose the best mobile phone package.
UPDATE V. Barry Jones GotUp! a short while ago and began jabbering in an old-mannish way about the precise wording of something or other. I felt like Dr Frankenstein watching a column come to life.
UPDATE VI. Lili Gans writes:
We sat down to watch the opening of the 2020 Best and Brightest Summit at 8.30 am on Saturday and three and a half hours later we gave up.
Lili - please read her entire post - couldn’t endure any more Ruddchat even though her son is a participant.
UPDATE VII. Annabel Crabb - striking a fine mocking tone in her direct-from-Ruddfest online coverage - hits the wall:
I was forced to leave the Governance session yesterday when I saw the facilitator draw a house on a piece of butchers paper. The brick bit was the media consuming public, TV the roof or some such.
A worthy reader challenge to Annabel:
I wonder if you can sneak in an objection to the low-flow shower heads for low-income households? Surely this will discriminate and identify them on the street when they step out each day with flat hair caused by unrinsed shampoo?
UPDATE VIII. “Butchers paper, indeed.”
UPDATE IX. Get cracking, summiteenies:
Each of the summit’s 10 groups have until three o’clock this afternoon to identify their three ideas, including one that costs nothing to implement.
Imagine the panic if they’d been asked to come up with ideas that made money.
UPDATE X. Piers Akerman:
If there was an independent thought voiced in opposition to the generally anodyne motherhood statements, it went unheard.
A delegate on the Dole Bludging Arts Scum panel made a similar point a few minutes ago, then called for bold ideas. “My bold idea is ...” he began, then the ABC coverage cut to another session.
UPDATE XI. More from summit superstar Cate Blanchett:
Wearing an olive green dress-suit, she told the 100 creative-arts participants about meeting former US president Bill Clinton in a hotel room in London a few years ago.
“He liked talking to blonde artists, he said, because they existed just a fraction ahead of culture,’’ Blanchett said.
UPDATE XII. In the future, there will be no chairs:
UPDATE XIII. Melbourne mother Kate Hands, invited to attend by the Herald Sun, isn’t impressed:
Ms Hands said she was disheartened at lunchtime, wondering if her trip to Canberra was worthwhile ... Most of the suggestions were obvious and had already been done in the past, she said.
UPDATE XIV. Summiteer David Marr is in Canberra on behalf of his entire fan base:
I’ve decided as a last resort I might as well represent myself.
UPDATE XV. There is no joy in Rudville! Also: get fit or pay the penalty.
UPDATE XVI. Sandra Lee calls crazy talk on Maxine McKew.
UPDATE XVII. Ruddlers in space! Summiteer Joshua Gans has Martian plans:
I decided to get more ambitious and put forward that perhaps our goal should be to put an Australian on Mars by 2020. When queried about the cost, I elaborated that it was not part of the goal to bring them back — that was the expensive bit. But let’s face it, if that idea gets up it will have the quality of being new!
UPDATE XVIII. Margo Kingston and her student Webdiarists planned to cover RuddCon ‘08, but so far they haven’t posted a single word.
UPDATE XIX. The SMH’s Mike Carlton wasn’t invited:
What a relief it is not to be on the A-list any more.
Carlton was previously on an A-list? What did the A stand for?
UPDATE XX. Rainmaker Tim Flannery didn’t turn up, thus preventing any floods.
UPDATE XXI. The summit’s best idea:
“Make death a better experience”