Hugh Jorgensen is a Research Associate in the Lowy Institute's G20 Studies Centre.
This is going to become a politically vexing question for the Prime Minister ahead of the September federal election, as this year's G20 summit in St Petersburg is being held one week before Australians head to the polling booths.
In her January press club address, the PM highlighted the unique opportunity that hosting the G20 in 2014 represents for Australia. But she is going to face the difficult choice between representing Australia's interests in Russia versus spending several crucial campaign days out on the hustings. Writing in The Australian, David Uren thinks the PM ought to attend, not least to reassure other G20 members of our commitment to the forum in advance of our host year in 2014.
Uren also calls for a bipartisan approach to setting the G20 agenda in 2014. At a recent roundtable on Australia's role in the G20, we asked a handful of participants about the role they saw for Australia as the next G20 host:
This week also saw Australia appointed to the chair of the Agricultural Market Information System, a G20 initiative aimed at reducing volatility in agricultural commodities. The appointment provides Australia with the opportunity to engage with the increasingly contentious relationship between financial speculation and food prices, and will boost Australia's credentials in this area should it be a topic of discussion in the G20 in 2014.
