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Yes, you already have a voice

Posted by on October 13, 2023 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Photo by Hussein Abdullah on Unsplash

How strange it is that we have been told repeatedly through the 2023 referendum campaign that injustice affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians cannot be properly addressed until they are given a voice to the Australian Government.

What, then, are we to make of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission? Known widely as ATSIC, this was a fully-funded body established by the Hawke Labor government in 1990. Its purpose was to provide our first nations peoples with formal involvement in the processes of government that directly impacted their lives. It functioned for 14 years until personal scandal involving its then chair, aboriginal activist and politician Geoff Clark, led to its disbandment.

But there was also an earlier ATSI voice to the Australian government, established under the Malcolm Fraser Liberal administration. In 1980, federal legislation created the Aboriginal Development Commission led by a 10-member board, all aboriginal, with a staff of around 100, again almost all aboriginal.

In addition, the legislation provided statutory recognition to the National Aboriginal Conference comprising aboriginal representatives from 35 electorates across the nation. Their views, reflecting their stakeholder engagement with first nations peoples, were provided directly to the federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

The ADC ultimately comprised a head office in Canberra as well as six regional offices, an additional 21 branch offices and a workforce of close to 400 staff. ADC was effectively subsumed into ATSIC in 1990.

In late 2004, the Howard Liberal government established the National Indigenous Council, an appointed advisory body to “provide expert advice to the Australian Government on policy, program and service-delivery issues affecting Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders”.

Then came the Indigenous Advisory Council established in late 2013 by the Liberal government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott. As another voice to government, its purpose was “to provide advice to on Indigenous affairs and a focus on practical changes to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people”.

Another Liberal PM, Malcolm Turnbull, subsequently established an Indigenous Policy Committee of Cabinet in 2015 to “support better engagement with Cabinet Ministers, their portfolios and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including through collaboration with the Indigenous Advisory Council”. The committee served until 2017.

In addition, the Coalition of Peak Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations came together in 2008. Today it is known simply as the Coalition of Peaks and comprises 80 peak bodies representing some 800 organisations through governing boards elected by first nations communities that are accountable to their membership.

Its formal purpose is to change the way Australian governments work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, organisations, and communities on Closing the Gap.

As the record shows, indigenous people have had a clear and direct voice to our federal governments for nearly half a century. Can any rational assessment be held that a voice with a capital V would solve disadvantage impacting indigenous people?