Australians have resoundingly rejected a proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in its constitution and establish a body to advise parliament on Indigenous issues.
Saturday’s voice to parliament referendum failed, with the defeat clear shortly after polls closed.
Wot? Absolutely nothing stoping parliament from listening to the numerous recommendations that would improve the standard of living or life expectancy of indigenous people. Why would you think a few token lines in the constitution will change that?
Because they’ll have an official body they’ll be dismissing rather than one of many groups, which aren’t always unified - it forces nothing, but does give a go-to body that the government will need to take an optical hit to ignore.
The constitutional amendment helps because the deserve recognition, and because it stops the next government disbanding the body.
So there will be just as many people saying the voice doesn’t represent them or their country but white folks can feel like everything is fine and dandy. Swell
Would you mind clarifying what you mean? There’s a few ways to interpret this.
If you mean that it’s not a perfect representation of the views of the indigenous community, that’s obviously true, but unavoidable in any representative body. What it does is solicit feedback from the community and effectively pushes that forward as a single, strong voice. This works in the same way that a union brings together workers that are powerless as individuals and small groups, into a single, far more powerful, though not perfectly representative body that’s able to campaign for meaningful positive change for all members.
Sounds swell to me.
some injustices are structural
Which a token gesture does absolutely nothing to change…
What’s token about forcing the government of the day to take the optical damage from publicly dismissing the guidance of the official body representing indigenous community? Seems it would give them reason to reconsider as well as a great body to consult on how to best prioritise and address the issues facing the community.
Entirely depends on how it’s to be structured. Which the public didn’t vote on. Done correctly I do agree on the optics of an official body though.
So it’ll be good, or ineffective at worst. What’s the issue?
Either way, some of us whities just don’t feel comfortable determining the future of indigenous people.
That’s the point of the Voice though, isn’t it - to give a body representing indigenous Australians a say in decisions relating to them.
That’s contrasted with the current situation, where the government selects an indigenous affairs minister, then optionally cherrypicks the indigenous representative bodies that support their agenda.
There’s nothing in the legislation that prevents the (predominantly white European) government from continuing to cherry pick. We don’t need another excuse to be apathetic about indigenous issues.