Print this pageBallajura Community Cabinet Meeting
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The Prime Minister announcing the Government response to the Australia 2020 Final Report.
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Minister Julia Gillard meeting Dr Steffan Silcox, Principal of Ballajura Community College.
On Wednesday 22 April 2009, the Australian Government held its 11th Community Cabinet meeting at Ballajura Community College in Ballajura, Western Australia. 580 community members registered to attend a public question-and-answer session with the Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers which was followed by a series of meetings between individual ministers and community members to discuss matters of interest or concern.
Before the meeting started, students of the Ballajura Community College provided an array of performances to entertain the assembling crowd, with the school choir opening the public forum with the Australian National Anthem.
Dr Steffan Silcox, Principal of Ballajura Community College, welcomed the Prime Minister back to the school, which he had visited previously when Opposition Spokesman for Foreign Affairs, and also welcomed the Cabinet. Mr Ted Wilkes, a representative of the Whadjuk Nyungah people, welcomed the Cabinet ministers to the traditional lands of the Nyungah on which Ballajura is located.
After being introduced by Mr Wilkes, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spoke for a short period to outline the Government’s priorities and responses to current national and international challenges.
The Prime Minister also used this occasion to release the Government response to the Australia 2020 Summit final report. At the meeting, Mr Rudd announced nine initiatives stemming from the 2020 Summit that include a deployable civilian capacity to respond to regional emergencies, initial steps towards an Indigenous Cultural Education and Knowledge Centre, and a workplace mentoring scheme to facilitate the passing of knowledge between skilled mature age Australians and business and the community.
Mr Rudd then invited the audience to share their interests and concerns regarding the greater Perth region. During the public forum, the Prime Minister and various Cabinet ministers answered a broad array of questions that touched on local and national challenges. Among the matters raised were the first home owners grant, funding alternatives to the national broadband network, wage rises for aged care workers, asylum seekers, and Medicare coverage of dental, physiotherapy and podiatry services.
Following the forum, ministers moved to various school rooms for 70 one-on-one meetings. The meetings provided individuals with an opportunity to discuss particular matters of concern directly with Cabinet ministers.
Further details about the Government response to the 2020 Summit can be found on the Australia 2020 Summit website. The Summit generated 962 ideas during an extraordinarily lively, engaged and incisive conversation. The Government gave serious consideration to all these ideas and has responded to all 962. Some fifty per cent are being adopted and taken forward by Government and around another 30 per cent are still under active consideration. The 2020 process was just the beginning. The Australian Government is committed to an open style of government that engages the community and welcomes new ideas because, as the Prime Minister emphasised at Ballajura we must work together if we are to addressed the challenges of the future. Community Cabinets by providing a forum where people can raise their concerns and seek clarification of the Government’s policies and plans helps the Government define what those challenges are and how they might be overcome.
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