Outlaw politicians' lies, 2020 told

Prominent Victorian barrister Julian Burnside QC has asked this weekend's 2020 summit to support a plan to make it illegal for politicians to lie to the public.

Mr Burnside is attending the future of governance session at this weekend's summit in Canberra.

And he has warned that many of the reform ideas coming out of the summit could be worthless without a more fundamental change in public life.

"If politicians are able to lie to us, mislead us about what's going on, about what they're planning to do, the whole system will not work," he said.

"We can have all these elaborate ideas [about] re-designing the constitution, but if they lie to us we can't hold them to account."

Support for a republic and changes to the constitution were prominent among the early exchanges in the governance session this morning.

The participants will continue their group discussions throughout the afternoon before coming together for today's final session.

2020 Indigenous youth delegate calls for national body

An Indigenous youth representative at this weekend's 2020 summit says a new national Aboriginal body should be created to avoid some of the add-hoc policies surrounding the federal intervention.

National Indigenous Youth Movement of Australia deputy chair Tim Goodwin says issues like domestic violence and alcohol abuse in Indigenous communities can only be tackled properly with proper consultation with Aboriginal people.

"The intervention is a classic example of highlighting where the relationship just isn't right between Indigenous Australia and non-Indigenous Australia," he said.

"You need to build those foundations properly before you can build policies and programs which attack those immediate issues, such as child protection and domestic violence."

He says a treaty should be signed between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians because the agreement would be good for our the county's national identity.

"Not only something that recognises the history ... that talks about the way this country has been built on the sacrifices of Indigenous people, but also really setting the guidelines on which the relationship needs to be built, which can then contribute to how we can build practical policies and programs," he said.

Related:

Call for new indigenous body
Former ATSIC Commissioner Klynton Wanganeen says he will raise the idea of a new national body to represent indigenous communities at the 2020 Summit.

Aboriginal delegation heads to UN
The National Aboriginal Alliance is taking its concerns about the Northern Territory intervention to the United Nations.

Call for new indigenous body

Former ATSIC Commissioner Klynton Wanganeen says he will raise the idea of a new national body to represent indigenous communities at the 2020 Summit.

A former ATSIC Commissioner is calling for a new national body to represent indigenous communities.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission was abolished four years ago by the Federal Government.

South Australia's Commissioner for Aboriginal Engagement Klynton Wanganeen says he will raise the idea at this weekend's 2020 Summit.

He says there needs to be a debate in the Aboriginal community to work out what type of body would give the best representation.

"To work out whether we go down a representative structure where there's elections or whether there's a model where we can grab the expertise that already exists in the Aboriginal community," he said.

" We have Aboriginal doctors, Aboriginal professors, Aboriginal lawyers et cetera and quite often we don't have an opportunity for those people to be engaged."

Related:

Aboriginal delegation heads to UN
The National Aboriginal Alliance is taking its concerns about the Northern Territory intervention to the United Nations.

Climate change hot topic at youth 2020 summits

Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard says Australian schoolchildren have put forward ideas mostly about climate change from their own 2020 summits.

More than 500 schools held talks during the past month ahead of the Federal Government's Youth Summit in Canberra this weekend.

Ms Gillard says she is not surprised the environment is the number one concern of many children.

"A lot of the ideas are about the environment, they're about climate change, water, about better transport systems, better ways of getting around without creating greenhouse gas emissions," she said.