Over the past year I have been privileged to undertake several external board reviews on behalf of client organisations. I am also the member of a board that itself engaged an expert external party to evaluate its performance. The purpose of this short article is to share the insights gained from these processes. Across a half a dozen boards in different industry sectors and at various stages of organisational growth and development, there were four recurrent governance themes on the minds of directors, including myself as an active governance practitioner. These observations are drawn from almost 30 one to one board and senior management interviews and related on-line surveys I conducted.

From a governance perspective, I support the proposed Voice to Parliament as I see it as having the potential to strengthen national governance and decision-making on First Nations issues through improved consultation. To sustainably improve governance, and government decision-making, we need permanent structures and processes to involve as many First Nations communities and individuals as possible in matters that concern them. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have been shut out for too long.

“When one thinks of the cruelty, squalor, and the futility of war…there is always the temptation to say: ‘One side is as bad as the other. I am neutral.’ In practice, however, one cannot be neutral…Nearly always one side stands more or less for progress, the other side more or less for reaction.” (George Orwell) Ukraine: one war will likely lead to another.....this article is written as war is active in Europe.