The Philippine-Australian Association of the ACT and the Monaro Region are pleased to invite you all to their first Community Forum for 2023.  ‘The Voice’ is a community information forum to discuss the historic national referendum taking place in Australia this year to vote on a constitutional amendment to enshrine a voice to Parliament for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters.

The forum will be on Friday 14 April 2023, from 5 to 7 pm, at the Woden Seniors Club in Phillip, Woden.   It will be graced by a panel of speakers who will inform, enlighten, and persuade us about the significance of this vote, as well as its impact on multicultural and migrant groups such as ours.  On the panel are:

Mr. Fred Leftwich,
our First Nations speaker and a senior civil servant formerly of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission and the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation

Mr. David Smith,
MP for Bean and Government Whip

Dr. Merlinda Bobis,
writer 

Mr. Subhash Jaireth, 
writer

PAA Executive Committee member Marlene A. Tucker will moderate the forum.

Everyone is welcome to this community forum — please share the attached flyer to your friends and family so they can also participate and raise questions about this watershed moment in the history of our nation.  For catering purposes (light refreshments will be served), please RSVP to Joseph Gasendo at jgasendo@gmail.com.

We look forward to your presence and participation at this PAA event.

With many thanks in advance,

Dr. Evanor Palac-McMiken
PAA President