Kevin Rudd has sought to make amends for his gaffe of scheduling the Australia 2020 Summit during Passover by holding a special summit for 50 Jewish leaders five days earlier.
The Prime Minister was embarrassed last month when he announced the dates for his future talkfest — only to be told that it clashed with the important Jewish festival.
Outraged Jewish groups petitioned Mr Rudd to shift his summit from April 19-20, but his office insisted there were no other dates available in his crowded calendar. But in a bid to salvage relations, he has asked the Executive Council of Australian Jewry to help organise a precursor summit for Jewish leaders on April 14 in Sydney.
The council has been asked to seek nominations from the Jewish community, and to forward them to the 2020 selection committee, which will choose the final attendees. Nominations must be lodged by today.
The council's president, Robert Goot, said there had been more than 50 nominations to the half-day Jewish summit so far, which he declared "encouraging, given the very short notice".
Asked if it made up for the initial snub, he was upbeat. "I think it's a most worthwhile alternative mechanism and I think the contributions will be positive and useful," he said.
The full list of 1000 participants for the main summit is expected to be released as early as today, after formal invitations were posted in recent days. Preparations have been in full swing in recent weeks, with the selection committee meeting often by teleconference to arrive at the final list for the 10 sessions.
Melbourne University vice-chancellor Glyn Davis has seconded many of his own staff team to work on the logistics, including how to ensure the event generates clear ideas and not just vague motherhood statements.
After a second gaffe — in which Mr Rudd initially nominated only one woman among the 10 non-government co-chairmen of the summit sessions — the final list is broadly representative of Australian society.
The chairman of the social inclusion session, Tim Costello, said there were many worthy nominees — including some high-profile names — who would miss out because of the need to balance expertise and demographics. He had to whittle 1800 applications down to 100 for his session, which will have 59% female representation.
The chairman of the rural session, Tim Fischer, said one way to ensure clear ideas would be to ask all 1000 participants to submit one priority idea in advance of the event.
