Barrie Dexter

Born on 15 July 1921, Dexter was brought up in a series of Anglican vicarages and educated on a scholarship at Geelong Grammar School.[8] Following the referendum in 1967 which removed provisions in the Australian Constitution which discriminated against Indigenous Australians, the Prime Minister Harold Holt invited Dexter to join the anthropologist W. E. H. Stanner and H. C. Coombs to form the Council for Aboriginal Affairs (CAA) and advise on national policy.Dexter wrote that, when Holt drowned in December 1967, the advantages that the Council for Aboriginal Affairs had hoped for by being part of the Prime Minister's Department did not eventuate.Dexter wrote that Wentworth "would have liked to see us dissolved" but despite strong opposition from some parts of the Government, the Council for Aboriginal Affairs succeeded in developing an evolving stance on Aboriginal development, landownership and identity politics, its relationship with successive departments, ministers and prime ministers and also emerging indigenous bodies.[20] In 2015 Dexter published a memoir titled Pandora's Box about the Council for Aboriginal Affairs 1967-1976 in which he detailed his service in the pursuit of a better deal for Indigenous Australians under six prime ministers from Harold Holt to Malcolm Fraser.
SecretaryDepartment of Aboriginal AffairsKilsyth, VictoriaCanberraDepartment of External AffairsGeelong Grammar SchoolBoer WarNeil CurrieRowen OsbornDepartment of Foreign AffairsreferendumAustralian ConstitutionIndigenous AustraliansPrime MinisterHarold HoltW. E. H. StannerH. C. Coombsidentity politicsJohn GortonW.C. WentworthWilliam McMahonWhitlam governmentCharles PerkinsGough WhitlamOrder of the British EmpireAustralian National UniversityW.E.H. StannerMalcolm FraserWayback MachineJuddery, BruceFilm AustraliaThe GuardianLenox HewittDavid HayBertram BallardAustralian High Commissioner to GhanaJohn RyanAustralian Ambassador to LaosAustralian High Commissioner to Canada