The summit was criticised by
Australia's Jewish community for being scheduled over the first two nights of
Passover, which prevented many Jews from attending. The Government responded by convening a special half-day symposium in
Sydney five days beforehand, attended by 56 leaders of the Jewish community, plus senior Government representatives
Kevin Rudd,
Peter Garrett,
Nicola Roxon and
Jenny Macklin. The summit was also criticized for the near-absence of women on the 11-member committee who would pick the 1,000 delegates—only actress
Cate Blanchett had been named. The Government responded by saying six of the co-chairs would be female politicians. By the time of the summit, there were three women on a 12-member committee. Some of the delegates themselves expressed criticism of how the summit was conducted. In particular, claims were made that the final report, which purported to represent the resolutions of the sub-groups, did not reflect ideas that they had espoused or did include ideas which they had not discussed, possibly reflecting an agenda which had been determined before the summit. Others were concerned that hard issues, such as terrorism in the group examining foreign affairs and security issues, were ignored. Journalist
Nicholas Stuart was initially struck by the people who were not invited to Australia 2020, including two
Australian National University professors
Paul Dibb and
Hugh White who had both advised
Kim Beazley. Looking at the list of those invited, he found that "the holes kept expanding as I looked further and further, searching for the others who should have been there." He said "it began to appear as if one group of advisors ... under
Howard had been replaced with another group of similarly hand-picked individuals," plus some media names. There was no continuing secretariat for any follow-up action for the recommendations from the conference or the ten subgroups or forums.
Wayne Swan managed to get a review of the
taxation system, to be prepared by the Treasury, but in May 2010 when Rudd eventually released the report, he rejected 135 of the 138 recommendations . Stuart wrote "The 2020 summit provided a paradigm for much of the activity in Rudd's term of office ... His rhetoric inspired and enthused voters. And yet ... and yet ... nothing happened." == Participants ==