Video: Australia's future - a republic?KEY POINTS:
CANBERRA - The delegates to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's summit on the future of Australia have packed their bags and headed for home, leaving behind them a rough roadmap to the kind of nation they would like to see in 2020.
In brief, they want policies that extend beyond partisan politics to create a fairer, more equitable, prosperous and healthy nation, living in a clean environment, supported by a green economy.
For Rudd the most difficult part of the 2020 Summit is just beginning - refining the ideas of 1000 delegates into a cohesive package of policies to steer Australia towards a new future.
High among the suggestions he will be considering are constitutional and tax reform, a treaty with indigenous Australians, new health incentives including a focus on preventative measures, and the creation of a green economy.
Rudd's challenge now is to not only develop a long-term policy package from the summit, but to manage the politics that inevitably will flow from it.
The Government will not accept all of the ideas put to it, risking anger and criticism from their supporters. It will also face a barrage from the Opposition, which went into the summit with a high degree of cynicism that the debate and final proposals did not diminish.
Rudd accepted the inevitable when he spoke, noting that critics had predicted its failure before it began, and that consensus was impossible.
"I say on certain fundamentals the challenge is in fact to build a consensus around those things that really count for the long term. I say to everyone here, we should just be relaxed about any such criticism ... roll with the punches. That's what it's about."
Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson, who said before the summit that he would not be making any proposals himself, described the weekend as a "shemozzle".
Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop described it as a showcase for Rudd's ego, and said that those participants whose ideas were rejected would have every right to feel exploited.
Delegates unhappy with the process attacked what they believed to be the sidelining of areas such as rural Australia - despite a section devoted to the future of rural industries and communities - and child abuse.
The Government has promised to respond to each of the recommendations submitted by each working group by the end of the year, but has already said it will not embrace them all, and will use only parts of others.
This is the nub of the problem facing Rudd: how to cherry-pick without leaving himself open to claims that he has used the summit to flesh out Labor's own agenda.
Rudd was unrepentant: "It is far better we ask the question, and have the answers come forward so that the whole process of national creativity in the ideas debate for our future occurs, rather than throttling it before it starts."
The summit involved leading academics, scientists, social and community thinkers, business, industry and indigenous leaders, artists, media analysts and commentators, representatives of Australian youth, and "ordinary Australians with good ideas".
They were assembled into working groups debating the future of productivity, education and training, and science and innovation; the economy; population, sustainability, climate change and water; rural industries and communities; a long term national health strategy; the arts; governance; and the nation's security.
Their vast range of suggestions were honed down to one "big idea" each, with at least three policy proposals, one of which was required to involve no, or negligible, cost.
What emerged were suggestions that reflected many of the nation's long-standing concerns, and repeated aspirations for symbols of nation identity - high among these an Australian republic.
The summit also urged a treaty with indigenous Australia as part of broader constitutional reform, supporting Rudd's existing emphasis on closing the appalling gap in health, wealth and opportunity between Aborigines and the rest of the nation.
Much of the language across the summit was aspirational, backed by specific policy suggestions that Rudd and his ministers will have to distil into a package that will be more than just words to the Australians who will in three years' time decide their immediate future.
1 An Australian republic and a bill of rights
2 An overhaul of federalism and the role of federal, state and local governments
3 A new national environmental and population agenda, embracing sustainability and government measures such as spending, taxation and investment policies
4 A single national school curriculum, funding students by need, and merit-based scholarships for vocational education and training as well as universities.
5 A new emphasis on preventative health, including bans on marketing junk food to children and regulations capping the content of unhealthy ingredients in food.
6 Constitutional recognition for Aborigines and a new comprehensive indigenous health strategy.
