The Voice: Are Indigenous people asking for special access to power?

‘Why them?’ is a question being thrown around lately. Why do our Indigenous people need a Voice? Isn’t Australia a democracy where everyone has equal access to power?

I’m tempted here to say, well, yes, we’re a democracy – but like democracies the world over, money speaks and some people have access more equal than others ($10,000 for a seat at a Premier’s dinner, anyone?). But let’s just park that argument for another day.

Yes, we are all able to make representations to Parliament and the executive government. ‘You can write to your member of parliament, to a minister, you can make a representation to a parliamentary committee. I do that all the time.’ says constitutional law expert Anne Twomey.

Sure, there’s strength in numbers, and collectives have a louder voice than individuals – think lobby groups such as the Minerals Council, the ACTU, the Business Council of Australia, even the CWA – who have always made representations to the executive government and Parliament. If the Voice referendum succeeds, Indigenous peoples will have a similar collective voice.

But none of those other groups are enshrined in the Constitution, are they?

No. But, ‘There’s an implied right of political communication in the Constitution … which Parliament cannot legislate to take away,’ says Twomey. Sounds a bit like the Voice?

‘The only difference here, in relation to Indigenous people and the Voice, is that they [will] have the stability of a continuing, existing body. And the reason for that is past experience. How do you ever achieve things if everything chops and changes all the time?’

An example is when the government abolished the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) in 2004. Has the Minerals Council of Australia ever been abolished by government? The Business Council? The CWA?

So this constitutional amendment will give Indigenous peoples that stability.

‘But at the same time,’ says Twomey, ‘it’s very specifically calibrated so that Parliament has the ability to change the way the Voice is composed, to change the way it operates, in case there are problems with it. So there’s flexibility built in. But that flexibility ties to something that will always exist.’

She goes on, ‘Both sides have an imperative to say: we’ve got this system – now it’s time to make it work.’

This piece was first published in The Triangle community newspaper in August 2023.