I must admit when I first heard that Kevin Rudd wants ideas from 1000 bright sparks on how best to run the country I was less than impressed.

I mean here’s the guy that promised "new leadership" for the nation, a new direction away from a tired old government and the first thing he does after settling into the Lodge is call a talkfest.

But that’s the cynical, uncharitable side of the old journo in me kicking in, perhaps.

Why not give the idea a go – as long as it is not politically manipulated – and as long as there is real action to put the best of the ideas into action.

Mr Rudd says he hopes to have the policy ideas from the 2020 summit worked out by the end of the year.

Under the plan, 1,000 people will be invited to Parliament House for a weekend in late April when “the best and brightest” will consider ideas across 10 specific areas.

Each area will be tackled by a group of 100 delegates chosen by a committee of 10 people co-chaired by Mr Rudd and Melbourne University vice-chancellor Professor Glyn Davis.

Mr Rudd says he wants individuals, not issue-based organisations, to contribute to solutions for challenges facing Australia.

“I think we need to call forth the talents and energies of people from well beyond the reach of the public service.”

The delegates will come from a mix of backgrounds but Professor Davis says the summit could never carry the voice of all Australians.

The topics to be covered are the economy, economic infrastructure, sustainability, rural industry, health, social inclusion, indigenous people and services, the arts, governance and national security.

Already the summit has been clouded by the fact one of the nation’s key future areas – the environment is not included.

But that aside, I think it is time that real people put forward some common sense solutions to the issues facing Australia.

Some of the issues I think really need to be tackled are housing affordability, raising a family, restoring values to our school curriculums, and ensuring that our health services are properly funded.

On the housing front, Wayne Swan yesterday announced tax breaks for first home owners, giving them an incentive to save for a deposit.

The deal is a 15% discount on the marginal tax rate of up to $5000 saved by low income earners.

I don’t know which world Wayne lives in but $5000 won’t go too far when you are trying to put together $350,000 to $400,000 now on the Sunshine Coast to buy a home.

It might be a good scheme for outback Queensland or the back of nowhere, but come on, we need to get real on tackling housing affordability.

The government yesterday was talking about a five-point plan to fight inflation – yet it’s not prepared to stop one of the biggest causes of increased spending causing the inflation – tax cuts.

While tax cuts are great – who doesn’t love them – what’s the point of them if we end up paying more on our home loan – or rent as mortgage costs for investors also soar.

Another major issue I believe as a nation we need to tackle is the whole subject of youth behaviour.

You don’t have to read this paper – or any other paper – for long to realise that Australia has a national crisis when it comes to young people becoming the victims of violent behaviour.

We were only talking in the office today, asking the question: “Where have the happy drunks gone?’’.

Now it seems a month does not go by when we don’t hear about someone being beaten unconcious or killed as people full of alcohol, not to mention a variety of drugs, take out their rage on some young clubber.

As a nation, we have to spend a lot more time, money and energy on examining why some of the basic human values – such as respect for one another – is not being taught either at home or school. And why is that we celebrate drinking like it is a national sport?

Imagine the amount of money we would save on policing, hospitals and corrective services, if we were proactive in identifying troubled youth and the environments in which they are raised, and go about bringing in remedies.

Like our hospital systems, it seems so much emphasis is put on bandaid solutions, rather than fixing problems before they began.

For example, if there were incentives for people to lose weight (subsidised gym programs) and become healthier (free quit smoking remedies), imaging the cost savings in health care.

The same argument applies to transport – provide a decent public transport system and surely we can reduce the number of cars on our roads – and reduce the need to keep building the expensive things.

But I suppose that’s just basic sense from an average bloke.

Hopefully, Kevin Rudd’s summit will come up with more ‘common’ sensefrom ordinary people who are desperate to see action, not talk, from this new government.