Talk is cheap - if you're a public servant

as an EL2 i thought about it, but [d]uck that !

Yeah, it is populist and I doubt that much will come of it. However, there’s no sign of the current government lacking ideas so that’s a silly criticism (given the hours many public servants are currently working, there may be too many ideas at present in fact…). I presume that the idea behind this is that Kevin Rudd wants to be seen to be in-touch and consulting, as John Howard’s increasing remoteness was one of the key factors behind his downfall.

yebbut al, i understood that elected representatives of the community should be listening to the views of their constituents anyway – that’s what they’re paid to do – and to take those views to parliament. isn’t this what government is supposed to be?

i didn’t think the system was so flawed we need a new way to do it. why didn’t keven-o-seven spruik this flaw with government then, eh?

it IS just blatant populism. as ant suggests, nothing of great value is likely to be gained in a weekend. and certainly nothing that couldn’t have been gained without the expense of this gabfest that could have – and should have – been gained by better and more active listening of our elected leaders to the ideas already extant in the community.

It beats having a jumped up suburban lawyer and his wife being the only people who are allowed to come up with policy ideas.

Chrissakes, if elected reps bust along on their own way without listening to input from others, they get called arrogant and get abused. If they say “we have some good ideas, but running a whole country needs a truckload of good ideas, and we concede that we are not the repository of all the world’s wisdom” and ask for input, they get criticised for talkfest, indecision, populist symbolism, blah friggin blah, sounding like a recording of Andrew Bolt.

And you wonder why you can’t get a better crop of people to put their hands up for election? Because they couldn’t be bothered to put up with this sort of crap.

Here’s a thought – don’t want to volunteer? Don’t.

Thumper, your last 2 lines are telling I think. “Strange thing to do” – maybe because we just aren’t used to an elected rep who is prepared to ask for help and to listen, we can’t help but fall into looking for ulterior motives…?
“Maybe some good will come of it” – indeed – maybe – if people give it a chance.

[rant /off]

I can’t see how anything really meaningful can come out of 1000 people coming together for 1 weekend! What I do suspect (and hope) is that they’ll use this to form some groups on specific matters that will continue to formulate ideas.

There also needs to be some wholistic viewings of things, to look at how all the various things and policies are operating on a national level. With people like Hugh MacKay and Tim Flannery and Tim Costello, who can see the whole picture and what affects what.

Yeah, maybe they are looking for more ways to siphon off everyone’s taxes for Working Families.

Nah, just more working families Thumper.

Some good looking EL2s out there.

Ah yeah I got an email about this, but its only open to EL1s and EL2s.