PNG 2020

One of my mantras in leadership and life has always been to not reinvent wheels. If something has been done well and has been proven to work, why try to reinvent it. Another of my mantras is that we can all learn from each other and from every interaction with each other. These leadership notions coupled with my strong desire to contribute back to my own country has driven me to thinking about how I can combine these sentiments for the betterment of PNG.

One of the thoughts that I have harbored for a while has been to try and replicate the Australia 2020 Summit which was held on 19-20 April 2008 in Canberra, Australia, aiming to "help shape a long term strategy for the nation's future". The summit ran as 10 working groups of 100 participants with 1000 delegates ( a cross section of the smartest people in the country from all walks of life) attended the summit to discuss ten "critical areas". Ideas and proposals were invited from all members of the community in regard to the following:

1. Productivity—including education, skills, training, science and innovation.

2. Economy—including infrastructure and the digital economy.

3. Sustainability and climate change.

4. Rural Australia—focusing on industries and communities.

5. Health and ageing.

6. Communities and families.

7. Indigenous Australia.

8. Creative Australia—the arts, film and design.

9. Australian governance, democracy and citizenship.

10. Security and prosperity—including foreign affairs and trade.

Some of the key ideas presented by delegates at the 2020 summit for some of the relevant areas included:

Climate:

-A sustainability, population and climate change agenda supported by robust institutions.
-A cities program to reduce emissions, save water and encourage public transport
-All new buildings after 2020 to be carbon neutral

Creative:

- Link artists with schools through mentoring programs

-Mandatory creative, visual and performing arts subjects at school

Health

- Establish a health equalities commission

-Create a national preventative health agency

-Make healthy food choices easy

- Promote better research

-Create a self-sufficient and flexible medical workforce

Productivity:

-Establish 2020 scholarships for vocational education and training and higher

education institutions to address skills shortage

- "Learning for life accounts" for every Australian from birth, into which the

government and others can make payments for education, training, parental leave, and superannuation contributions

-Parent and children centers to give communities access to integrated services to support children's

health, development, learning and care.

A full copy of the report is available at the australia2020 website for those interested.

The significance of “2020” for me is what a similar summit could generate for PNG. Clearly, and with all due respect to those in public life, the best and brightest of PNG society do not necessarily find themselves at the pointy end of the decision making tree. A “PNG 2020” would potentially provide the opportunity for those best and brightest men and women to put forward their ideas to help drive the country forward.

For instance, drawing on the many ideas that emanated from the Australian version, some of the specific ideas that resonated for me particularly in the PNG context included:

1. 2020 scholarships: deliver merit-based scholarships to vocational education and training and higher education institutions in skills shortage areas.

2.Teaching first: establish a national program to attract talented graduates and career-switchers into teaching, and reward teachers for working in national priority areas, including in disadvantaged communities, in remote areas and in subjects with teacher shortages.

3. Golden Gurus: retired people acting as mentors in all aspects of economic and social life.

4. A National Preventive Health Agency that would tax hypothecation of cigarettes, alcohol and junk-food products to fund the agency including a 2.5 cent increase in tax on each cigarette, a volumetric tax on alcohol, a tax on high-energy, low-nutrient foods (a junk-food tax) and the abolition of bringing duty-free alcohol and cigarettes into the country.

5. Establish a national housing foundation, with a small percentage from the sale of every property in the country to go to public housing and homelessness.

6. Establish programs for young offenders across a range of industries, such as the automotive industry, where cars are repaired and rebuilt by offenders and then are given to sole parents who have had their car stolen.

7. A new form of national service for young people to travel through the country, visiting a variety of places and performing some sort of community service while in that location.

8. Provide training for parents. The current focus of programs is on birth, not on parenting. The training should be postnatal: antenatal does not work. Also, develop a mentoring system, rather than just mothers groups, especially since the extended family is generally not around.

9. A national civil service, where working for the country could be a profession of first choice; introduce a public service exchange program between federal public service, state and territory public service and the private sector.

The question now is how do I make “PNG 2020” a reality? Stay tuned.