[8] According to Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu the main objectives of the summit were to "provide strategic priority for growth, financial rebalancing and emerging economies, investment and infrastructure, and employment and labour mobility".

[9] Professor of international finance law at the University of New South Wales Ross Buckley suggested that the summit should have emphasised the implementation of existing strategies rather than seeking agreement towards reforms.

[1] Mike Callaghan, the director of the G20 Studies Centre at the Lowy Institute for International Policy has stated that if the G20 meeting was to attain significant outcomes it should focus on boosting infrastructure spending, multilateral trading systems and combating base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS).

Event organisers needed to ensure that appropriate security measures were in place to protect visitors, while minimising disruptions to inner-city residents and businesses.

Telstra established the network in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Cairns before the event and later continued rolling it out across South East Queensland.

[24] The Australian Government rented 16 bombproof Mercedes Benz S-Guard limousines specially for the summit at a cost of AU$1.8 million.

[37] This meeting was the first time an Argentine President could not be in attendance; Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was ill, and so was represented by Economy Minister Axel Kicillof.

Opinion was divided both in Australia and elsewhere on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin should have been allowed to attend the G20 summit, following Russia's response to Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 being shot down as well as pro-Russian actions in Ukraine earlier in the year.

[38] Australia's foreign minister, Julie Bishop, approached other G20 countries about banning Putin from the meeting, and stated that this consultation found that there was not the necessary consensus to exclude him.

[40] It was confirmed in September that Putin would attend, with Abbott stating that "The G20 is an international gathering that operates by consensus – it's not Australia's right to say yes or no to individual members of the G20".

[42][43] Although Russia had previously sent warships to accompany presidential attendance at international summits, the size of fleet and the lack of official notification to the host country made this an unprecedented move.

[44] At the private leaders' retreat, held shortly before the official opening of the summit, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Russian President Vladimir Putin "I guess I'll shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: You need to get out of Ukraine."

On the 13th, the IMF's Managing Director Christine Lagarde and the Republic of Korea's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kyung-hwan Choi arrived from charter flights, while Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Salman arrived from a Saudi Arabian Royal Flight Boeing 747SP-68 and Brazil's Dilma Rousseff from a Brazilian Air Force Airbus VC-1 (Airbus A319).

The 14th saw the European Council's President Herman Van Rompuy, Senegal's Macky Sall, the FSB's Chairman Mark Carney and Singapore's Lee Hsien Loong arrive from charter flights.

The European Commission's Jean Claude-Juncker, ILO's Director General Guy Ryder, Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso and Myanmar's Thein Sein arrived from charter flights on the 15th.

Although the communique largely focused on economic concerns, other topics such as energy supply, climate change and the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa were also discussed.