Officially the Voice Co-Design Senior Advisory Group is named by Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt. It has 19 members (too many) and most are Indigenous people with very high public profiles. Excellent to see so many good women on the group including Marcia Langton (co-chair), Pat Turner and Maggie Walter, all are feisty and won’t be silenced.
The Senior Advisory Group is to oversee the Co-Design process to enhance local and regional decision-making and provide a voice for Indigenous Australians to government. It will be tasked with forming a National Co-Design Group and a Local/Regional Co-Design Group. Its first meeting will be held on 13 November at Old Parliament House, our classic and greatly-loved venue in Canberra for deliberative gatherings eg the Constitutional Convention in 1998. The Government has committed $7.3m for the Co-Design process – looks like half the funds put aside in the contingency reserve for the referendum….
WfaAR is still having conniptions over the frequent mentions of the Co-Design groups having to come up with “models”, a recipe for determined disagreement and disaster leading to stasis. We know from experience.
