Consilium

I thought I would provide a bit more detail about Consilium.  If you’re into policy, ideas and issues then Consilium is a heavyweight event.  The quality of the attendees is amazing – top business and political leaders, former commerce commission chairs, orchestra CEOs, top academics, overseas speakers and some politicians.

Interestingly there are five Labor MPs here, and only two Coalition MPs.  While the Centre for Independent Studies is a classical liberal thinktank, it is very non partisan and is held in high regard by many in the Australian Labor Party.

Around 150 people attend plus partners.  The partners tend to attend all the sessions, as most have a keen interest in public policy issues.  The one thing which has struck me about the people here is the sheer intelligence and intellectual firepower.

This is possibly because it is generally not a cheap event to attend.  I am extremely lucky to have been invited to speak as a guest.  Not up to me to state what the normal attendance fee is, but let us say it is high enough to deter anyone who is not very serious  about policy issues.  And to my surprise I learnt that despite the high fee, there is a waiting list of people wanting to attend.  That’s because the quality of the event has given it such a good reputation.

I’ve been lucky this year to attend four thinktank type events.  The Pacific Rim Policy Forum in Hawaii, the Sounds Symposium in Blenheim, the Dunes Symposium on Waiheke Island and finally Consilium in Coolum, Queensland.

My interest in politics comes from an interest in policy.  Discussions about the best policy rather than the most popular policy are what motivate me.  Some of your best ideas come from a session where you actually disagreed with what was said, but it led you to think about the issue in a different way.

Anyway need to head back into a session now.  Will try and later today blog a summary of yesterday’s forums.