2020 Summit snubs over-75s and Queenslanders
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After the one-woman 2020 Summit steering committee sparked controversy, Professor Glyn Davis was vigilant about avoiding future messes. Announcing the chosen ones, he noted, “The 1,000 who will be there are very representative of the Australian people. There’s 51% female. They come from every state and territory. They are from a whole range of professions.” So who are these 1,000, or should we say 890, people? (890 is the number of seats left vacant at the summit after accounting for federal and state politicians, governors, bureaucrats and youth summit delegates.) At first look, the list of names feels Baby Boomer-heavy with a tendency for high profile WASPs who already have a voice. But perhaps that’s just the names we recognise catching our eye. 51% women was a miraculously aligned figure. How did the steering committee go matching other Australian demographics for the 890 Summiteers? Here are the attendees by age, compared with the national age profile.*
And here’s the state-by-state breakdown.**
Looks like all the brains are in Canberra…and that’s before we account for the full 1,000 delegates, with its remainder of pollies and bureaucrats. The ACT only has 1.6% of the population but makes up 10.1% of the delegates. NT is also well represented, presumably due to the Indigenous section of the Summit. Queenslanders have been noticeably snubbed — or perhaps fewer applied to join the fray. Unfortunately, a socio-economic comparison isn’t feasible, but given Summit attendees mostly need to pay their way, it’s evident that it would be significantly skewed. And the heavy Canberra contingent wouldn’t help — the average weekly household income there is almost $500 more than the national average. *268 attendees were too shy to provide their age on the Summit form (!). We have drawn our figures only from those who fessed up. Possum only counted those 15 and over in the national profile since that’s what the Summit used. ** The figures only account for 863 delegates because the rest only provided an email address/are currently overseas/reside in multiple states. |
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6 Comments
I’m sorry, but I don’t give a f*ck. The whole thing’s a jerk -off and no matter what anyone says the poor blo*dy tax-payer will be funding it, one way or another. I didn’t know that Australia included Norfolk Is. Crikey!
So much of this extravaganza is going to be about business-as-usual. There are assumptions on the website that population will increase, while peak oil doesn’t get a mention. How the organisers plan to come up with any rational outcomes in discussion about the economy if these are not factored in is beyond me.
Great critical analysis. I notice that there are no preschoolers either. Keep up the good work
PS: Byron beat me to the punch-line. Olé, olé
As usual, the self-governing Australian territory of Norfolk Island has been overlooked completely. Total delegates from here: 0
Jane’s headline should have read “Summit snubs Queenslanders, over 75s and regional Australians”
Organisers of the Summit expressed disappointment at the low number of applications received from regional Australia.
One possible reason for this was that attendees to the Summit are expected to meet all their own expenses which works against people living in regional Australia.
The cheapest airfare for that weekend from Townsville to Canberra is $460 if the passenger does not need to work on the Friday before and the Monday after. This increases to well over $1000 if travel needs to be outside working hours. On top of this are the accommodation costs for the weekend.
From Brisbane it is possible to fly to Canberra and back for less than $300 outside of working hours.
If the 2020 Summit were to be truly representative of the Australian population some mechanism should have been included to assist with the transport costs of people from regional Australia.
Peter Hanley
Townsvil