27
Historic Indigenous voice referendum bill passes parliament
(www.theguardian.com)
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I’m voting yes because I don’t want to empower the subset of “No” voters who will take a “no” win as a sign that Australia approves of their racism views and become a louder voice in political discussion.
But I don’t believe the voice to parliament will be useful in anyway or something we want to lock into our constitution till the end of time.
I’m open to civil discussion with anyone here to convince we the voice to parliament is actually a good thing. Or indigenous sovereignty in general. Not convinced in that either.
I'm in a similar vein, and as of yet I've still yet to hear a convincing argument as to why this body is different from the multitude of other advisory bodies the government has, and will continue to soundly ignore, or why a well-funded statutory body can't achieve the same role.
Racists will claim anything other than a 100% yes vote as a 'win' so don't let their backwardsness stake a claim in your mind.
I'm not in anyway a representative for the 'Voice' campaign, so I'm happy to be corrected by anyone who's more informed (or actually involved!), but you've asked some pretty valid questions that we should be discussing.
So here's my 2c worth.
What can the Voice do anyway?
There have been a number of Aboriginal advocate groups since the beginning of the 20th Century. Some of these have been pretty influential and have gone a long way to achieving important milestones in recognition of Aboriginal & Torres Straights people.
Some of these include the establishment of NAIDOC week (most schools and communities do something for this - but it was established almost 70 years ago!). Some of these include really seemingly simple things like welfare pr making sure funeral needs are met in communities (imagine living in your home country and the government wouldn't let you farewell a dead family member because a cremation or burial is 'against the rules'...some of the issues have been this basic). And of course some include monumentally significant things like advocating for changes made by the the 1967 referendum.
So there is a significant history of Aboriginal Advocate groups pushing for advancement, making sure basic needs are met, promoting changes to reduce issues with alcohol, etc. All good things, but with a long way to go I'm sure everyone would agree.
So if an advocacy group can do all that, why the hell do we need to change the constitution?
Probably the crux of the issue. The problem with advocacy groups to date is that they have been constantly attacked or undermined by government on various levels. Here's some examples:
Like any government bureaucracy the formal bodies had to deal with various tensions - but, that's like the whole purpose of politics right? If everything was a perfect and straightforward process we wouldn't need any politicians. I'm sure there were legitimate concerns with a number of these bodies, but the point is that when they became inconvenient they were given the boot (usually by one particular party). Another thing to note is that we've now got about 100 years of learning on what works and doesn't work with this type of Aboriginal advocate body.
Given this history and the lack of trust generated by some of the interventions like in the Howard years or Abbotts 'all talk no action', Aboriginal people are pretty jaded by the idea of 'yet another body to dismantle'.
So what's being proposed in the constitution is the need for the government to consult with the Voice on legislation affecting Aboriginal people. It's not enshrining a particular composition or remit, because experience shows that needs to be tweaked even as the issues shift.
Anyway, like I said, I only really know enough to scape the surface of the issues. But we rarely seem to get any discussion on "why" other than "it's better than the racists having a field day", so I hope this helps.
Great insight, thank you