The Voice Referendum October 2023

What is it?

On October 14th Australia will vote in a referendum. The proposal is to insert an additional chapter into the constitution:

In the table of contents:

Chapter IX Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

And in the body:

Chapter IX—Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

129 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice
In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:
(i) there shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice;
(ii) the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
(iii) the Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.

The options are to vote YES to agree to this amendment or to vote NO to reject it.

Why?

Indigenous Australians – about 3.5 to 4% of the Australian population – have been and are subject to disadvantages due to historical and current issues. If you are an Indigenous Australian, you can expect to have a shorter life expectancy, lower levels of health, education and employment and higher infant mortality rates than non-Indigenous Australians. And if you are a male Indigenous Australian, there is about a one in six chance that you are in prison or have spent time in prison.

Some numbers:

In 2010-12, the average life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was approximately ten years (10.6 years for men and 9.5 years for women) less than that of non-Indigenous Australians. Leading causes of death included heart disease, diabetes, respiratory disease and cancer.
Just over half (52.2 per cent) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged between 15 and 64 years were not employed in 2012-2013, compared with 24.4 per cent of non-Indigenous Australians.
One in five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women experienced physical violence in the previous 12 months, compared to 7 per cent of non-Indigenous women. Over the same period, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women (12 per cent) were three times more likely to experience sexual violence than non-Indigenous women (4 per cent).
In 2008, half of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 years and over had some form of disability. In non-remote areas, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were one-and-a-half times more likely than non-Indigenous adults to have a disability or a long-term health condition.
Around one in twelve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults are part of the Stolen Generations. In 2008, 8 per cent (26,900) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 years and over stated that they had been removed from their natural family. 35 per cent assessed their health as fair or poor and 39 per cent experienced high or very high levels of psychological distress.
The national imprisonment rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults is 15 times higher than that for non-Indigenous adults. In the December quarter of 2013, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people comprised 28 per cent of Australia’s full-time adult prison population. Twenty years ago, approximately 4000 Indigenous adults were behind bars. That number is now around 12,000 – 12 times higher than non-Indigenous people. For young Indigenous people, it is 22 times higher.
There were approximately 250 Australian Indigenous languages spoken at the time of colonisation. However, a 2005 survey found that only 145 Indigenous languages are still spoken to some degree and less than 20 are considered to be “strong” and able to be spoken by all generations.

What is its history?

In 2007 both major political parties committed to constitutional recognition. In 2010 the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition was established following a bipartisan commitment by the major parties to constitutional recognition at the 2007 election. (Note: this bipartisan commitment ended when the Liberal and National parties decided to take an opposing position in 2022).

The Uluru Statement from the Heart calls for a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.

The Statement represents diverse First Nations views from across Australia. It was developed through a series of Regional Dialogues involving more than 1200 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from across the country.

The final Statement was presented to the Australian people by 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at the First Nations National Constitutional Convention at Uluru on 26 May 2017.

The Statement calls for:

a First Nations Voice to be permanently included in the Constitution
the establishment of a Makarrata Commission to supervise agreement-making and truth-telling about our history.

The words of the statement from the heart:

We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart:

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,000 years ago.

This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown.

How could it be otherwise? That peoples possessed a land for sixty millennia and this sacred link disappears from world history in merely the last two hundred years?

With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood.

Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.

These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.

We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.

We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.

Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.

We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.

In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.

Why Yes?

This referendum is responding to history and entrenched disadvantage. The provision proposed is supposed to acknowledge the history of Australia and recognise the manifold disadvantages inflicted and entrenched throughout Australian history.
Indigenous people should be consulted about laws that affect them before they’re introduced. The Voice will bring better decisions and better outcomes for Aboriginal people than legislation without consultation.
Adding it to the constitution will ensure that this voice will not be abolished after a change of government like other institutions and organisations before it.
The Voice is an advisory body, it wouldn’t give Aboriginal people the right to block legislation. It would simply force politicians to consult them before laws were passed.
There is a lack of understanding and knowledge, listening is a first step to improve.

Why No?

The arguments of the NO vote:

There is too much money already wasted with little effect.
There are already representations and an abundance of committees.
This change opens the door for treaties and demands for reparations and compensation.
There is not enough information given about the composition of the voice.
The Voice poses a high risk.
It is divisive and racist, why should people be singled out due to race?
This will bring even more bureaucracy.
If accepted, it opens the door for radical activists.

What else?

There are so many unresolved issues and there is so much guilt and shame, very strong influences of behaviour and very difficult to identify and discuss, but if history is not truthfully acknowledged and discussed, they will continue to make living together difficult.

The Voice