Summitry goes beyond the cocktail diplomacy

It highlights the toxicity that can infect these gatherings in the public mind-set in the absence of concrete and identifiable outcomes. Instead, all the public often see is the cost and the inconvenience of additional security and traffic chaos.

This makes it all the more important for the Gillard and Barnett governments to clearly identify the foreign policy benefits of the gathering.

To begin with, it provides a chance for Australia to host some of the world's most important leaders. They will include Britain's David Cameron, India's Manmohan Singh, South Africa's Jacob Zuma and Canada's Stephen Harper, presuming he wins the coming election.

In some of these cases - and given the distance - you can expect some of them to add a bilateral schedule on the sidelines of the gathering. And just like a dinner party, it would be strange for our guests to arrive empty-handed.

The Queen and Prince Phillip will be there, "if we are still standing after the long flight" she said last week.

It also provides a platform to showcase Australia and to more vigorously prosecute our foreign policy objectives within the agenda.

The gathering will provide a perfect staging ground to lobby member states to support the Gold Coast's bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games, not to mention our campaign for a seat at the UN Security Council, which desperately needs the support of African members.

You can also expect refugees, climate change and even Afghanistan to be on the agenda Australia puts forward.

By hosting the gathering Prime Minister Julia Gillard will also take over from Ms Persad-Bissessar as the Commonwealth's chairperson-in-office for the next two years. This isn't as valuable to Australia as it would be to a developing state, but it will still put another arrow in our diplomatic quiver.

When pressed on it last week, Ms Persad-Bissessar was quick to point out her time as the Commonwealth chairwoman had resulted in "a very high level, multi-billion-dollar energy contract to be signed with Ghana and had businesses and corporations come in that would not have otherwise".

She said it had also provided unprecedented access to the Commonwealth's institutions.

The Commonwealth at first glance can seem an archaic and outdated institution, and therefore understanding and explaining its significance to our place in the world will be a critical challenge for our State and Federal governments.