'She said Rudd told her his top priorities were education, climate change, sustainable cities, federal-state relations and broadband. Fix all these, and productivity would rise, he said, leading to a buoyant economy. (a quote from Margot Saville's book 'The Taking of Bennelong', referring to Maxine McKew's meeting with Kevin Rudd on 19 January, 2007).

The Rudd initiative of the April Australia2020 Summit: great to see some blue sky thinking by the new government toward a fresh national agendaÖbut something seems to be missing from the list. It became pretty apparent to me in Europe that quality cities are now recognised as the prerequisite for progressing lots of other policy objectives. This doesn't seem to have registered here yet ñ or are we blinded by the myth of 'liveable city' superiority from seeing that most new development is abysmal?

What can we do to raise the profile of an agenda like: 'Competitive and Sustainable Cities: quality platforms for prosperity, equity, innovation and environmental balance' for the Summit?

Rod Duncan is manager of the City Centre Program, a place-based initiative of the City of Greater Bendigo.