This weekend, leaders of the world’s most significant economies will gather in Brisbane for the G20 Leaders’ Summit.
It will be the most important gathering Australia has ever hosted. It will bring together, around one table, leaders of the nations responsible for 85 per cent of world GDP, 75 per cent of world trade and 60 per cent of the world’s people.
That gives the G20 Leaders’ Summit the clout to make a real difference to the lives of billions worldwide.
But influence alone does not change lives. It must be harnessed.
The challenge for the G20 is to ensure that when leaders emerge on 16 November, our words are backed by definite actions, and that there are accountability mechanisms in place to see that these actions are delivered in full.
In addition to ensuring the 2014 agenda has been tightly focused on the economic reforms that will deliver the biggest benefits to the greatest number worldwide, Australia has used its G20 presidency to strengthen the G20 itself.
Public interest in the G20 will always focus on big-ticket agenda items – like our centrepiece commitment to boost the G20’s GDP by at least an additional 2 per cent over five years, the first time in the G20’s history that leaders have agreed to a measurable target.
Collectively, there is much work to do. The global economy remains weak. There's a shortfall in available funds for infrastructure, a lack of employment opportunities globally and trade growth remains disappointing. The G20’s ability to prove it can step up and act on these challenges is critical to the forum’s relevance in the future.
But there’s an equally important piece of work being done to ensure that when leaders meet, it’s more than just a high level talkfest. Australia, as G20 President this year, has worked hard to ensure that accountability –to fellow G20 members and to the peoples we serve – is central to our work.
There’ll be no hiding behind lofty words and motherhood statements in Brisbane. Each nation’s domestic growth strategy will have been peer reviewed and then the strategies will be published for the world to see. These, together with the Brisbane Action Plan, will ensure that people back in each of the G20 nations will know, straight after the summit, exactly how their leaders propose to drive new economic growth and deliver new jobs. So there will be a domestic expectation upon leaders to deliver at home, and an expectation from fellow G20 members who have resolved to hold each other accountable.
The Australian presidency has seen other innovations too. For the first time we have brought together the G20’s two distinct “tracks” of work – the finance track, led by Treasurer Joe Hockey, and the leaders’ track – so that the decisions we hope leaders will make to establish an infrastructure hub, increase female workforce participation, strengthen financial institutions and minimise tax avoidance are substantive, effective and ready for implementation.
Similarly, we know governments do not have all the answers, so this year has seen an unprecedented level of engagement between Ministers, officials and the official engagement groups - business (the B20), civil society (C20), labour organisations (L20), think tanks (T20) and the world’s young people (Y20) – to ensure the G20’s deliberations benefit from their expertise.
As an economic forum, the G20 should stay focused on growth, jobs and the world’s economic governance. On other issues, G20 leaders should lend our support to other institutions like the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations, rather than seek to duplicate their work.
Australia firmly believes, for example, that representation on the International Monetary Fund and the Financial Stability Board needs to reflect the emerging market realities of this century rather than the last. We have also started an important conversation on the changing nature of global energy markets and the need for G20 collaboration going forward.
Australia has used its presidency to progress work on all these fronts and we hope the G20 will be stronger as a result.
We do this in pursuit of the economic reforms we know will create more opportunities for Australia and the world. Reforms that will unleash the private sector to deliver economic growth and jobs; make the global economy more resilient to future shocks; and strengthen global institutions to ensure their continuing relevance in a changing global economy.
Unapologetically, we’ve put our focus on and our faith in, the private sector. Because making life easier for businesses to invest, to employ, to produce and to trade is what drives national growth and prosperity and helps lift people out of poverty.
This is the priority for Australia’s G20 host year, just as it is the Australian Government’s priority here at home, every year.