Climate Change, Ebola, Ukraine: Brisbane’s G20 Summit Wasn’t Just About Economy · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

The G-20 Leaders – Caricatures. Flickr photo by DonkeyHotey (CC License)
There was extensive debate about what should have been discussed at Brisbane’s G20 summit on 15-16 November. As Clarencegirl shared on her blog North Coast Voices, even Pope Francis had ideas for that very public member of his Catholic flock, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott:
…there are far too many women and men suffering from severe malnutrition, a rise in the number of the unemployed, an extremely high percentage of young people without work and an increase in social exclusion which can lead to criminal activity and even the recruitment of terrorists. In addition, there are constant assaults on the natural environment, the result of unbridled consumerism, and this will have serious consequences for the world economy.
So what actually happened both in private meetings and the official forums? Netizens have had lots to say.
A speech by US President Barack Obama outside the official forum called on Australia “to step up” on climate change. It received lots of praise, including Meg Watson at Junkee:
You know when your dad’s been away for a while and he lays into you about not taking the rubbish out while he was gone? He says he’s not mad, just a little disappointed, then goes into an inspiring speech about how we all have to do our part around the house. That’s essentially what just happened to our entire country. President Obama has only been in Australia for a matter of hours and he’s already incited people to take action on climate change.
The view of well-known lawyer and human rights activist Julian Burnside was a popular retweet:
Obama's speech to UQ students will inspire a generation. Abbott's opening speech at #G20 was profoundly embarrassing. #auspol
— Julian Burnside (@JulianBurnside) November 15, 2014
Abbott’s opening speech copped more criticism:
“listening to President Obama was so refreshingly uplifting after Abbott's cringeworthy address…” — @bettsie2u http://t.co/C62HY6BQLr
— Meta Cranky Noely (@YaThinkN) November 16, 2014
The satirical website Shovel was at work slamming his local content:
LMAO Gold: “@The_Shovel_: Tony Abbott will address #G20 leaders today on car parking issues in his Warringah electorate #G20Brisbane”
— Cate Bolt (@catebolt) November 16, 2014
Many have been disappointed by the lack of aggression in the meeting of Australian PM Tony Abbott and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. There was no sign of Abbott’s threatened “shirtfront”.
It seemed to be time for cuddling and making up, according to @lynlinking:
‘It’s called a koala, Tony': Twitter explodes after Abbott trades ‘shirtfronting’ Putin for cuddly joint pic: http://t.co/ofrUosZllv
— Lynlinking (@lynlinking) November 15, 2014
Meanwhile, protests went ahead as expected with only a few arrests on Saturday. It is a sign of the times that independent legal observers were present to monitor events. Flickr has numerous Creative Commons images of the G20 summit, including this one:
Independent legal observers – Image courtesy flickr user Paul Cunningham
Any concerns that climate change and Ebola wouldn’t get into the final communiqué were dispelled:
♨ #ClimateChange #Ebola #Jobs Make Up The Headlines On 1st Day of #G20…http://t.co/DkZn1gpvp4 #auspol #G20Brisbane pic.twitter.com/0RD7Od5QEf
— theEDITOR (@smnaustralia) November 16, 2014
#G20Brisbane will be remembered for Abbott's crushing failure to convince the rest of the world to ignore #climatechange #fail #auspol
— citizen grafiti (@grafiti) November 16, 2014
Commitments to economic growth (an extra 2.1 percent of GDP by 2018) and reform were given the thumbs up by many online:
The @dailytelegraph declares @BarackObama “hijacked” the #g20 to include climate change, and that Abbott “succeeded in … economic growth”
— Faily Telegraph (@FailyTelegraph) November 16, 2014
However, Robert Fairhead was cynical about real economic outcomes:
Communique, shmunique! Bet 10 yrs on, nada! HT #G20 communique lists 800 measures for economic growth http://t.co/dMRH7MUiBG
— Robert Fairhead (@tallandtrue) November 16, 2014
Ukraine didn’t make the communiqué, but Vladimir Putin was blasted by other leaders off stage apparently. Ed Johnson, Sydney bureau chief at Bloomberg News, mused:
Putin stares down #G20 storm of criticism with Ukraine mantra http://t.co/YS0QWCX7Q1 #Putin pic.twitter.com/vjH2j3FTkh
— Ed Johnson (@edwardrjohnson) November 17, 2014
Outside the summit, Tim O'Keefe captured protesters against Putin on video:
Finally, the Ebola crisis managed to make the agenda:
#G20 statement on #Ebola commits members to do “what is necessary”. Resources, expertise needed @MSFAustralia @MSF @aspen_medical #auspol
— Dr Stewart M Condon (@drstewart_MSF) November 16, 2014
So was the 400 million Australian dollars (350 million US dollars) spent on the G20 summit by the Australian government, value for money? You be the judge!