Your Ruddiness, the problem with your summit ...

Of the 150-odd conflicts which have taken place since the early 1990s, two thirds have had at their root a quarrel between competing groups over resources - food, land, water, oil, diamonds etc. It’s not about politics, race or religion as the media seems to think. It’s about what people imagine they need to survive - and that often involves eliminating some other group. So ensuring adequate supplies of food, water, energy and minerals for everyone is actually about preventing wars. It is a far more lasting investment that a few jet fighter planes.

The common thread here is knowledge. The issue I’d ask you to lay before your summit, your Ruddiness, is that Australians have a number of brilliant ideas for tackling most of the issues which are critical to the human future.

Thanks to the vast spread of our continent, its environment, climates, minerals, soils, lifeforms and hydrology stretching from the tropics to the Antarctic, we have a bigger box of knowledge than virtually any country in the world - and we should use it, not only to benefit ourselves, but all human beings. If need be, we should give it away with generosity of spirit. That’s how you make friends. But we can also sell a great deal of it, and that’s how you generate prosperity.

So in framing the summit around the needs of Australia, the canvas is already too small. Our future security and prosperity is bound up with that of our region and our world - and they need the sort of leadership we have the knowledge and skills to provide, but have so far shirked.

If you want the best idea for the future of Australia, just take our best ideas to the world.