The nation’s upcoming referendum vote to enshrine a First Nations voice into Australia’s constitution is an important and complex conversation.

Brought to you by Indigenous-led First Nations Foundation, Leadership & The Voice to Parliament is a dialogue investigating what it all means for corporates, their stakeholders, and their staff – and to give business leaders the insight they need to decide how they might participate in the ongoing Voice to Parliament proposal.

The conversation will focus on understanding the Voice mechanism and breaking down what is being proposed and why this is important to First Nations people, including understanding how the media and corporate Australia has moved with the story.

The panel will discuss how boards can manage the ongoing conversation, whether a business can remain silent on the Voice proposal, managing a leadership group that may comprise of different views, and ‘doing what’s right’ at this point in our history.

Please join us for this special event moderated by First Nations Foundation CEO, Phil Usher, proud Wiradjuri man with links to the Gomeroi people of New South Wales.

Guests

Ian Hamm – proud Yorta Yorta man, Chair of the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation, First Nations Foundation and Koori Heritage Trust, and President of the Community Broadcasting Foundation.

Ian is also a Board Director on The Healing Foundation, Yarra Valley Water, Inclusive Australia, Australian Red Cross, the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) and Aboriginal Housing Victoria. He is also a sessional panel member on the Australian Financial Complaints Authority and Planning Panels Victoria.

Narelle Hooper – Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Institute of Company Directors member magazine Company Director. Previously at the ABC, Fairfax Media and SBS TV, former editor of the Australian Financial Review’s BOSS Magazine and founding co-chair of the Financial Review’s Women of Influence Awards.

Narelle is also a member of the board of The Ethics Centre, and a previous non-executive director at the Tasmanian Development Board, Documentary Australia Foundation, and women's entrepreneurship accelerator SBE Australia.

Kyle Loades – Chair of Active Super, non-executive Director of AMA Group and Great Southern Bank, Chair of Hunter Medical Research Institute, and a Conjoint Professor of Practice at the Newcastle Business School at University of Newcastle.

He is former Chair of NRMA and the Australian Transformation and Turnaorund Association, and is a Fellow of the AICD and AusTTA, along with completing an MBA at University of Newcastle, a Harvard Business School Certificate in Disruptive Strategy, a Transformation Leadership Program at Australian National University.

Karen Mundine – proud Bundjalung woman and CEO of Reconciliation Australia bringing more than 20 years’ experience leading community engagement and public advocacy. Over the course of her career, Karen has been instrumental in some of Australia’s watershed national events including the Apology to the Stolen Generations, Centenary of Federation commemorations, Corroboree 2000, and the 1997 Australian Reconciliation Convention.