As a referendum on the proposed body approaches, federal opposition leader Peter Dutton will meet with advocates of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament today.
Pat Anderson and Professor Megan Davis, co-chairs of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, academic and activist Noel Pearson, and working group members who have been advising the government will make presentations to him during a meeting with the referendum working group.
We appreciate Mr. Dutton being present at today’s meeting, Davis remarked.
“I’m hoping it will help him understand the importance of a constitutionally protected Voice for our people and the country.
He was less fortunate than other people in the room to have participated in grassroots dialogues where First Nations Peoples fiercely expressed their dissatisfaction at not being able to have a role in the laws and policies that are all too frequently imposed upon them.
Many different Indigenous people will give their reasons for supporting the Voice and their expectations for what it will accomplish for them in a video presentation.
Dr. Josie Douglas, a Wardaman, claims the proposed change will put a stop to the underrepresentation of distant Indigenous people.
She states in the movie, “Government develops policies for distant Aboriginal people without consultation, without taking into account how people are feeling and what control they desire over their daily lives.”
“policies that are created with them and for them in mind.
“Aboriginal people living in distant and very remote villages in Central Australia have no access to electricity. They are voiceless.”
Before the matter is put to the Australian people in a referendum, Davis urged Dutton and the federal Liberal Party to endorse the proposed Voice.
It is too essential to let party politics interfere with it, so we gave the Uluru Statement from the Heart to the Australian people rather than to politicians, she said.
“We hope that Mr. Dutton and his party room will support First Nations Peoples and work to unite the nation to pass this significant constitutional amendment,”
Dutton has demanded more information rather than indicating whether the Liberals will support the federal Labor administration in its push to get the Voice written into the Constitution.
David Littleproud, the leader of the Nationals, stated in November that his party will not support a “yes” vote since the Voice would not “really reduce the gap.”
With Prime Minister Anthony Albanese supporting the constitutional amendment, the federal government has actively backed the Voice proposal.
By the year’s end, a referendum on the subject will be held, he claimed.
