On 14 October, Australians will vote in our first referendum in 24 years. We speak to campaigners for and against the Voice to Parliament.
Whatever your views about the Voice to Parliament Referendum – or maybe you are yet to make up your mind – there are some undeniable facts about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) people in Australia. The First Nations people make up three per cent of the population, but are 26 times more likely to be imprisoned as children compared with the rest of the population. Adults are 12.5 times as likely to go to jail. The ATSI mortality rate is well above that of the mainstream, with 61 per cent of deaths before age 65 – compared with 17 per cent of non- ATSI people. Once ATSI hit 40, they have six times the rate of blindness of other Australians.* Some may think the ‘Stolen Generation’ – the practice of forced removal of ATSI children from their families to integrate them into white society – is a thing of the past, but in 2023, ATSI children are being taken from their communities at alarming rates.
It is within this context that in 2017, a representative group of 250 ATSI people gathered in Central Australia and wrote The Uluru Statement from the Heart. It asked for ‘constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country,’ and the establishment of a First Nations Voice.
This year, we have heard a lot about the Voice to Parliament Referendum to be held on 14 October. The Voice will create a permanent way for ATSI people to have input into laws which will affect them. It will have no power to change laws, but operate alongside the Federal Parliament and Government. If the Referendum succeeds, the Constitution will be changed to create the Voice, which would be an advisory group made up of ATSI representatives, chosen by them. It would make representations to the Federal Government on how laws made by the Parliament would affect ATSI people, and allow communities at the coalface to provide solutions to local issues.
Independent MP Zali Steggall has held several sessions about the Voice in her Warringah electorate. For her, the Voice is essential. “This is a policy area where successive governments of all political persuasions have failed.
“I see the Voice as a means by which from the grassroots up, ATSI will have an opportunity to express opinion about better policy designs (which could work) within their communities. So the policies have better prospects of success on the ground.”
Ms Steggall recently ran in Manly with former Liberal politician Pat Farmer as part of his 14,400 kilometre marathon for the Voice around Australia. As a member of Parliament, Ms Steggall says she would value advice from a non-partisan group like the Voice on how policies would work in ATSI communities.
Ms Steggall gives the example of the now defunct Indue Card (or cashless welfare card) as an example of why the Voice is needed. The debit card prevented people on income support from purchasing alcohol and withdrawing cash, but had a disproportionate impact on ATSI. The Senate was asked to vote on a continuation of the Indue trial last year.
“I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt, but in the end its rollout was incredibly inefficient and highly expensive to manage. So there was a huge amount of costs borne by the public to private contractors rolling it out and not enough support services, so on the ground it didn’t work,” Ms Steggall says.
“What I would’ve really liked was to get advice from a body that was not politically aligned that could tell me the pros and cons of whether or not these policies genuinely had support (from local ATSI communities).”
Australia’s first ever Indigenous barrister, Tony McAvoy, has lived in Manly Vale for 23 years, and is a Wirdi man from Central Queensland. His two children were born and have grown up on the Northern Beaches. Tony, who is approaching 60, still remembers being told at school that there were no more Aboriginal people in Queensland. When he started practising as a lawyer, he would enter the courtroom to hear the duty sergeant and the prosecutor telling racist jokes and read on their charge sheets about how badly ATSI were treated upon arrest.
Mr McAvoy acknowledges that many people who live in Sydney will have never met a person of ATSI background. But he says the country is now ready to recognise ATSI in the Constitution and ‘right the wrongs’ of 122 years of exclusion from Australia’s foundational document.
“The proposed amendment will provide for a more harmonised existence for some years to come,” Mr McAvoy says. “That we have a sense of being able to be accepted for who we are and that the community wants to work with us to improve our existence.”
The Referendum question:
“A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
Do you approve this proposed alteration?”
Then the voter writes ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
All Australians aged 18 and over must vote in the Referendum.
Mr McAvoy has been speaking at dozens of forums across Sydney about the Voice and he is encouraged that the majority of participants come with an open mind.
“Most Australians will not notice any difference as a result of the proposed amendment to the Australian Constitution. But it will mean an incredible amount to First Peoples.
“If we are able to achieve this now, we will have a much different relationship between First Nations and broader Australia. Because of that acknowledgement and respect.”
Former Prime Minister and Member for Warringah Tony Abbott overrode his usual practice of not commenting on current issues to give evidence at the Senate Inquiry on the Voice to Parliament in May. Mr Abbott told Peninsula Living that he felt compelled to speak out because changing the Constitution was a serious matter, ‘for keeps’.
Calling the Voice an ‘activist power grab,’ Mr Abbott said he was not opposed to ‘genuine constitutional recognition’ for ATSI people. “But what we’re getting is the Voice to everyone on everything. Instead of a very limited requirement to consult on laws passed under the so-called race power,” he added.
Mr Abbott said the Voice would inject ‘race’ into the Constitution and reinforce the separatism of ATSI, ‘which is at the heart of indigenous disadvantage’. “We need to treat Aboriginal people essentially on the same basis as everyone else is treated.
“If you like Australia, and you think that Australia is a fundamentally good country with very little to be ashamed of, you should vote a resounding no to this Voice.”
While the Federal Liberal Party is not supporting the Voice, NSW Liberal leader Mark Speakman has said he will vote yes, with colleagues James Griffin (Manly), Matt Cross (Davidson) and Felicity Wilson (North Shore) also actively campaigning as part of the Liberals for Yes group. Liberal Senator for NSW, Andrew Bragg, who has responsibility for Warringah, Mackellar and North Sydney, is also a Yes advocate.
Image credit: Tony Abbott facebook
In terms of Closing the Gap – the measure by which governments measure the performance of ATSI against the rest of the population – the ratio of ATSI incarceration compared to the rest of the community has continued to rise, with the rates for ATSI women rising fastest.
Tony McAvoy says it is almost entirely as a result of property crime, which means it’s ‘poverty-driven,’ with devastating impact. “The really tragic fact of the overrepresentation of
Liberals for Yes
James campaigned in Manly with Voice advocate Dean Parkin in August.
Manly MP James Griffin
“I believe that it is one thing to recognise 65,000 years of Aboriginal connection to this vast land. It is another thing to create a voice that will help Aboriginal people thrive. It is time to do both.
“The next chapter of Australia should be written with courage, optimism and respect. Do not be afraid of something like the Voice, embrace it. I am a patriot and I believe our country will be stronger together.”
Davidson MP Matt Cross
Matt Cross
“I believe positive change begins by listening to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their communities. Let’s give them a voice about the matters affecting their lives, which will allow governments to make better decisions and deliver practical outcomes.”
ATSI women in prison is that usually it means that their children end up in care and are separated from their family and community.”
As a result, ATSI child removal rates are increasing nationally, Mr McAvoy says. Homelessness rates in the ATSI population are also on the rise. Previous Federal Governments took funding away form local community organisations so the communities ‘lost control of their own service provision’.
What is needed, Mr McAvoy argues, is the right for ATSI people to make decisions for themselves. “To have some control over our own destiny. Because the way in which our communities live and exist is different. And we understand our own communities and can make decisions that work with our culture rather than trying to change our culture into something else through the provision of programs (forced upon ATSI).”
The Federal Government’s leaflet on the Voice states that the body would have no ‘veto’ power and no authority to direct funds – contrary to some models in the past, such as ATSIC (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission). If passed by the Referendum, the Voice will be a permanent advisory body which a Government could not ignore – but how it works in practice would be up to the Parliament of the day.
Ms Steggall says some people in her electorate have expressed the ‘fear of unintended consequences’ of the Voice.
“For all the people who are worried about the cost of current policies or even resent some of the areas of focus around ATSI services: the whole point is unless we change, unless we vote yes, nothing will change it. It will remain the same. If anything, a no vote is a public rejection of ATSI culture and issues.
“I would always argue that we can improve the Voice down the road, but if we reject it, we won’t get the chance again.
“And to me, the legacy for our future generations is quite considerable.”
Tony McAvoy agrees: “It’s a really important time for the maturation of this country.
If we are able to embrace our past and look to a better future for everybody, then I think the country’s well placed to become a modern, fully fledged adult in terms of nationhood.”
*Statistics taken from the Australia Law Reform Commission and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.