One year ago today, 300 Canberrans came together at the National Convention Centre for what senator Annette Ellis dubbed ''the first ever very large Canberra conversation''. Chief Minister Jon Stanhope described it as ''a rare chance to begin shaping Canberra's future''.
The Canberra summit was jointly convened by the ACT Government and Canberra's Labor federal parliamentarians. It was one of a number of local summits around the country, each of which submitted proposals to the Australia 2020 Summit.
Canberra's suggestions ranged from ethereal to substantial. Most were highly ambitious.
A year on, there is no indication that Canberra 2020's fresh ideas have been implemented.
There is no movement at the station of the perennially-discussed fast train between Melbourne and Sydney via Canberra. Teachers' salaries have not increased and Canberra does not have a sister city relationship with a remote Aboriginal community. We are no closer to developing a treaty between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. The Australia Council has no plans to relocate here in accordance with the proposal to make Canberra a ''national capital for the arts''.
Delegates wanted to make Canberra a ''city for design'', ''the most sustainable city in Australia'', ''the city for the Asia Pacific'' and a ''city for education, culture and languages''. It would be optimistic to imagine Canberra joining the likes of New York, Paris, London and Tokyo any time soon.
The economy
Chief executive of the ACT Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chris Peters, said the economics ideas that emerged from Canberra 2020 were achievable. ''This was produced at a time when the global economy was still growing and the Australian economy was booming, but the global financial crisis changed governments' priorities,'' he said.
He believes the time is right to make the fast train a reality through federal infrastructure spending.
''To me the fast train is our generation's major building exercise, like the Snowy Mountains Scheme was for our parents'. It's that significant. It's hugely important for the east coast of Australia and Canberra would benefit enormously from it.''
Communities, families and social inclusion
ACT Council of Social Service director Roslyn Dundas hoped the ''innovative'' ideas would be considered in the next review of the Canberra Social Plan. ''There are some really good ideas here and we should progress them,'' she said.
''They are important steps in taking Canberra forward but we need to look at how we can include the whole of Canberra in this vision and not just continue to widen the gap.''
On the proposal to foster a ''life-long learning culture'', Ms Dundas said more needed to be done. ''There are 78,000 people in the ACT who have insufficient literacy skills to get by in the modern world. That number hasn't changed since 1996. We need to try to bring that number down.''
Conference participants strongly backed the proposal to encourage community participation and ''active citizenship''. Ms Dundas said better community planning was one way to bring people together. Footpaths, for example, were a basic requirement for a ''walking school bus'', but many new suburbs don't have them.
She said Canberra needed to implement long-term strategies to support people who were struggling before the global financial crisis. ''It will require a significant change and that's not easy, but it is so vital for us to build the community we say we aspire to.''
Population, sustainability, climate change and water
Canberra Environment and Sustainability Resource Centre director Robin Tennant-Wood said most of Canberra 2020's environment-related proposals were achievable in the long term but she noted the idea to redefine state and territory borders was ''impractical''.
Dr Tennant-Wood applauded the proposal to increase public transport use in the ACT but said it would require a significant commitment by government. ''I know they're working towards that but there's still a long way to go. As any regular bus traveller will tell you, getting around Canberra by bus on a weekend is difficult.''
As for the suggestion to produce more food locally, she said it was well underway. ''It is something the Environment Centre has been working on for some years and we've come a long way down the road towards not just producing a lot more food locally but consuming more food locally.''
Education, skills and training
Australian Education Union ACT branch secretary Penny Gilmour said the proposal to increase teachers' salaries should be acted on if Canberra wanted to retain and attract good educators. As for the virtual schools idea, she confirmed it was ''a long way off''.
Speaking about the proposals in general, she said: ''[Y]ou can't point to bricks and mortar concrete stuff and say, 'This has happened', but the talking and development of ideas is starting to coalesce.
''There's always an element of disappointment that things that begin in a flurry of excitement can be slow to progress. We are one year on. I think the conversations are necessary to crystallise what really has to be done on the ground. I'm not despondent about it but I'm always a little cynical about the fanfare with which these things are often flagged. Just as much can be achieved with quiet, measured, steady process as with ripping good ideas brought down in a blaze of publicity.''
Canberra has 11 years to develop its envisaged future, but whether the fantasy becomes reality remains to be seen.
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