Print this pageAdelaide Community Cabinet Meeting
On Wednesday 20 January 2010, the Australian Government held its 20th Community Cabinet meeting at the Norwood Morialta High School in Magill, an eastern suburb of Adelaide. This was the third Community Cabinet meeting held in South Australia. On a hot summers evening, around 460 community members attended a public question-and-answer session with the Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers, followed by a series of meetings between individual ministers and members of the public. The community was entertained by the Norwood Morialta High School Band prior to the commencement of the meeting.
Principal Panayoula Parha welcomed the community to the meeting, and invited Aunty Josie Agius to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land. Students Mel Milios, Joanne Darby, Katrina MacKenzie, Danielle Greaves and Kelsey Raj sang the National Anthem.
The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, opened the public forum by reiterating the Government’s commitment to keep in touch with local communities and engage on local issues directly. The Prime Minister noted that Australia was the only advanced economy in the world not to go into recession during the global financial crisis. The Prime Minister spoke of the next set of challenges facing the nation, namely the growth of the ageing population, as outlined in the Treasury’s next Intergenerational Report. He outlined the implications of the report’s findings, most notably the need for increased investment in health care, aged care, and support for pensioners. The Prime Minister then spoke of the Government’s plans to boost productivity through investment in infrastructure, investment in education, and peeling back unnecessary regulations that constrain businesses from turning a profit.
The Prime Minister and ministers answered a very broad range of questions in the public forum. These covered both national and local issues and included management of the Murray-Darling Basin, education and employment programs for Indigenous Australians, support for new migrants, the Government’s emissions reduction targets, and funding for Aboriginal Legal Aid services.
Following the forum, ministers moved to 59 pre-arranged one-on-one meetings. These meetings provided individuals with an opportunity to discuss a personal matter or an issue of concern directly with the relevant minister.
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