Ms Sophie Nelson:

What they did really well was to inject new ideas on intersectional politics into a new constitution while avoiding widescale conflict. That was a real success of the constitutional convention, which was set up to have representation mostly from independents but also from some political parties. The convention provided for enforced gender parity quotas and indigenous people quotas and it protected the participation of disabled and LGBTQI+ people within that. What that meant in practice was that marginalised people would be visible and represented within the constitution. There were many reasons it was not adopted. Some people have outlined that very tense economic and social relationships developed and that the process was being undertaken in a fiscal climate that was particularly challenging. We know that when that happens, it can interrupt and push back on people's willingness for change.

As for what we can learn, one of the failures of the constitutional convention was that it did not connect local communities to political leadership. While grassroots organisations and local organisations in particular were represented within this constitutional convention, political parties were somewhat left out of the discussions. We cannot let the same process happen here. We need political parties to be engaged in these discussions too. Many of the independents within the constitutional convention rejected party politics entirely. Consequently, there definitely needs to be a diverse make-up and a mix but that definitely is something we can work on.