Few people are aware of co-design’s political roots. The concept first emerged in Scandinavia in the 1970’s through union insistence that workers be included in the major restructuring of their industries as a way of “emancipating workers at the workplace” (p. 145). Central in its philosophy is the tenet to equalise power as a prerequisite for true collaboration. For International Women’s Day, Summer May Finlay (@SummerMayFinlay) of University of Wollongong explains why the government has shown bad faith in failing to adopt the full recommendations from the Uluru Statement from the Heart. As long as full citizen rights are withheld from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, women’s rights will also fail to be achieved.

On the surface, it appears that the message Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been saying since the colonisation of the lands now known as Australia, “nothing about us, without us”, has finally been heard by an Australian Government. But only on health.

A new era of co-design has been established under the leadership of the Honourable Ken Wyatt, Minster for Indigenous Australians, and Patricia Turner, CEO National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO). There is now a partnership between COAG and the National Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations on the Closing the Gap Refresh. The partnership shares decision-making on the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Closing the Gap framework.

The partnership is driven by successive governments’ failure to achieve, or be on track for, four of the six Closing the Gap Targets. A government has finally recognised that a key to success is ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are partners in all stages of the process impacting them.

The Closing the Gap Refresh partnership is new, innovative and yet to be fully put to the test. I am genuinely hopeful that the partnership will deliver outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

I am, however, reserving my right to be a skeptic.

Health may be getting a co-design makeover but that cannot be said for all areas of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs. And it is certainly not the case for the Uluru Statement.

The Uluru Statement calls for three reforms, summarised as Voice, Treaty, Truth. The first reform is the constitutional enshrinement of a Voice to Parliament (Voice). The second reform is the Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations (Treaty), and truth-telling (Truth).

The Uluru Statement from the Heart: A beautiful example of deliberate, collaborative, and empowering co-design.

While a National Co-design Group for an Indigenous voice has being set up to explore constitutional recognition, the terms of reference for the Group has explicitly ruled out two of the Uluru Statement from the Heart proposals – a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament and a treaty. And I am not sure anything has been said on the truth-telling process.

We know from the Uluru and the Kirribilli Statements that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people do not want symbolic constitutional recognition, but rather substantive recognition. While symbolism has a role to play, it will not drive the substantive changes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people need to improve the health and wellbeing of their families and communities.

We need a voice. A voice that cannot be ignored.

The Uluru Statement is in and of itself an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice. The Statement was drafted in the shadow of Uluru by 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from around the country. It was the final process capping off 12 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific deliberative dialogues by the Referendum Council on the topic of Constitutional Recognition.

The contradiction in the processes between the Closing the Gap Refresh and the approach to the Uluru Statement demonstrates that the government still has not got its head around the idea of co-design. Co-design needs to be about power sharing. If one of the partners limits the conversation to what is comfortable for them, this is not true co-design.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people need to be involved in the decisions that impact us. We know historically that legislating or funding a body to represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people does not work. It does not work because these organisations or bodies are at the mercy of the political winds and run risk of being disbanded like the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, or loosing funding like the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples. We see it continue today with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations continuing to fight for funding to survive.

We know that while the political wrangling is going on about HOW to support communities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people die. Our children are taken away. Our people are locked up. Our children are less likely to go to university or get a job. Our women suffer poor maternal health outcomes. Our organisations are spending time advocating to government about engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people rather than focusing on service delivery. Meanwhile, mainstream services and non-government organisations are continuing to receive Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander funding without demonstrating outcomes.

The issue? There is no mechanism holding governments to account for ALL outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

As an Aboriginal person who happens to be a woman, on International Women’s Day I say this is not good enough. I have seen the power and strength in our communities. I have seen the value in the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health sector. I see the resistance and adaptability of our people and communities when a change of government brings with it a new approach and ideology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs.

Our communities have answers, government just has to be ready to listen. This is why a constitutionally enshrined voice to Parliament is essential. A co-design process without limitations needs to occur for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs.

What this means for our collaborators and allies is we need you to do the same and publicly back the Uluru Statement.

Will you?

This post is part of the Women's Policy Action Tank initiative to analyse government policy using a gendered lens. View our other policy analysis pieces here.

Holding back justice: Co-design, constitutional recognition and collaborators