The Misguided Case for Indigenous Recognition (Part III)
Part Three: The Ethnic Bias of the Expert Panel
The makeup of the Expert Panel is consistent with the bias evident in the Report’s recommendations, that an ethnically blind Constitution be changed into one that names two relatively small ethnic groups so as to honour and privilege them in perpetuity while omitting recognition of Australia’s national origins.
Let us start with the numbers. The Panel had ten indigenous and nine white members. The three ex-officio members were also indigenous. [1] These are shown in the following table.
Indigenous | White |
Patrick Dodson (Chair)Josephine Bourne
Timmy Djawa Burarrwanga Megan Davis Lauren Ganley Sam Jeffries Marcia Langton Alison Page Noel Pearson Ken Wyatt (Ex-officio:) Jody Broun Les Malezer Mick Gooda |
Mark Leibler (Chair)Graham Bradley
Henry Burmester Fred Chaney Glenn Ferguson Bill Lawson Rob Oakeshott Janelle Saffin Rachel Siewert
|
The Panel seems to have been selected to exclude all but…
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