Fed: Reconciliation poll to be held this weekend

AAP General News (Australia)
02-15-2001
Fed: Reconciliation poll to be held this weekend

CANBERRA, Feb 15 AAP - Hundreds of people selected at random from around Australia
will meet at Old Parliament House this weekend for a deliberative poll on reconciliation.

Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ian Sinclair, will join forces with
former Labor MP Barry Jones to chair the poll, entitled `Australia Deliberates: Reconciliation
- Where from Here?'.

The poll will mirror procedures of the 1998 Constitutional Convention on the republic
issue, with participants randomly selected from across Australia and asked to talk about
reconciliation.

The main topic will be the future of relations between indigenous and non-indigenous
Australians and how harmony can be promoted.

"If reconciliation is about defining the nature of the relationship upon which all
Australians move forward into the 21st century, it is evident that we still have much
to discuss and debate," a briefing paper on the poll said.

"This will be our collective aim at Old Parliament House in February."

Impartial moderators will chair deliberations and will gather a host of high profile
Aboriginal and white community leaders for televised panel discussions.

The advisory group includes former prime minister Bob Hawke, Australian Democrats Senator
Aden Ridgeway, Labor's indigenous affairs spokesman Bob McMullan and Liberal MPs and senators.

Former High Court judge and author of the Bringing Them Home report on the stolen generations,
Sir Ronald Wilson will also join former Liberal minister and co-chair of the newly former
Reconciliation Foundation, Fred Chaney.

Reconciliation Minister Philip Ruddock will attend, while ATSIC (Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Commission) chair Geoff Clark and former chair of the Council for Aboriginal
Reconciliation, Evelyn Scott, will also be in Canberra for the poll.

The poll has been organised by a team of poll specialists, Issues Deliberations Australia,
with in-kind and financial backing from public and private bodies from universities and
governments.

Issues Deliberation Australia is a non-profit, non-partisan, independent organisation.

AAP lm/daw/maur

KEYWORD: RECONCILE

2001 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.