Dear ASSI Community Leaders, Family and Friends,

Greg Sutherland, the chair of the National Australian South Sea Islanders Governance Working Group, is travelling from Mackay to Sydney to consult and gather feedback from ASSI communities/families/friends in Sydney and surrounding areas on the ASSI National Body Constitutional development.

He has asked me to advise the community of the confirmed meeting date and venue so that everyone may be involved.

The model that has been agreed on by a significant number of community consultations to date is the Federation model to represent our people.

Federation Model Definition:

A federation is a country with a united central government that is made up of separate units that each control its own internal affairs. The United States is one example of a federation.

Many countries, such as Canada, Australia, Mexico and India, are federations. The Forum of Federations is an international organization that strives to share advantages and challenges of the federation form of government among its members.

The forum also works with countries struggling to move from more authoritarian forms of government to the more democratic federation model by providing advice and support. Federations allow states with diverse ethnic and cultural groups to unite into strong countries with centralized governments.

Our pro bono law firm, Gilbert & Tobin, have kindly drawn up a community input / feedback questionaire which will be much of the topic for discussion at the meeting and can be downloaded HERE.

Those of you who cannot attend, may want to put questions regarding the attached document Q&A in writing or provide your answers to the questions contained in the form by filling in the far right hand blank column and returning it no later than 1 week prior to the meeting date.

Return the questionaire by emailing your completed copy to both of the following email addresses:

To Greg Sutherland – email: NASSIWG@skillstm.com.au and CC assi.pj@gmail.com
so we can collate all information for the meeting here in Sydney.

An ESTIMATED time frame for adoption of the draft constitution and election of our national delegates is expected to take place in September / October 2014.

Please understand that the draft constitution is not set in stone it is a basis to start from and will change inevitably to represent our community / organisations needs as we develop our national representation.

Time and date for ASSI National Body Constitutional Development Meeting 2014:

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting and hearing your feedback.