Australia 2020 Summit
In February 2008 Rudd announced the Australia 2020 Summit, held from 19–20 April 2008, which brought together 1000 leading Australians to discuss ten major areas of policy innovation. The summit voted in favour of a plebiscite on Australia relinquishing "ties" to the United Kingdom followed by a referendum on the model for an Australian republic, a bill of rights and the re-formation of an Indigenous peak representative body similar to ATSIC, which was abolished by the Howard Government in 2005.
In April 2009, Rudd announced that of the 962 recommendations of the summit, the following nine would be adopted:
- a civilian regional disaster response organisation
- an indigenous cultural centre
- a national workplace mentoring program
- bionic eye research
- Asian scholarship program
- children's television channel
- business and school's roundtable
- carbon emission skills program
- tertiary education broadband network
See also: Australia 2020 summit final report, Government response to the Australia 2020 Summit
Read more about this topic: Rudd Government
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