‘We will be stuck in our colonial past if Voice fails’: Dodson

Labor senator and Aboriginal elder Pat Dodson says if the Voice to parliament referendum fails, it will send a message across the world that Australia is stuck in its colonial past, and urged people to back the proposal on principle and not get weighed down in debates about detail.

Dodson, a Yawuru elder, known as the Father of Reconciliation, said there would be “serious implications” for Australia’s place on the international stage if the referendum is rejected by voters.

“It’ll send a tsunami wave across the international spheres that we are still stuck in our colonial past basically, and that we really cannot find the generosity of heart and spirit that underpinned the issuing of the invitation that came from the Uluru Statement From the Heart from the First Nations peoples,” Dodson said.

Labor senator Pat Dodson said there would be “serious implications” for reconciliation efforts and Australia’s reputation on the international stage if the Voice referendum fails.Credit:Rhett Wyman

“It’s a pretty big reality that a people conquered by the British and settlers of this nation [are] extending an olive branch to the nation and saying: ‘All we want from you is a way to go forward here’.”

In an interview with this masthead, Dodson, the government’s special envoy for the implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, dismissed a renewed appeal by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for more information about the composition and operation of the Voice on Wednesday, saying the Australian people were being asked to vote “on principle, not on detail”.

“What people have to know is that this is about a set of words that you’re being asked to vote upon to insert into the Constitution. That’s a significant matter. That’s the principle matter,” Dodson said.

The decision by the federal Nationals Party this week to formally oppose the referendum – a move that has been resoundingly criticised by Voice advocates as premature -reignited a debate in the final sitting week of the year over how much detail the government ought to provide Australians about how the body will function before the national vote.

In his parliamentary speech on Closing the Gap, Dutton said Australians had “a right to know” what they will be voting for, noting that it had been four months since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled a draft amendment to enshrine the Voice in the Constitution.

He proposed a string of “reasonable and warranted” questions he said remained unanswered, including: whether the proposed constitutional amendment was the only form of words the government was willing to consider; who will be eligible to serve on the body; how will members be elected, chosen or appointed; how many people will make up the body and how will the body be funded?

“In matters as important as constitutional change details must never be an afterthought,” Dutton said.

“Australians can’t make a proper assessment simply based on three proposed sentences to change the text of our Constitution. The government has to disclose sufficient details and we support them in doing that as soon as possible.”

But Dodson said the finer details of the Voice would be decided after the referendum, with the draft constitutional amendment giving the parliament the power to determine the composition, functions, powers and procedures of the Voice.

“That detail will come. They (the opposition) will be front and centre to the debate on the detail contained in the legislation that sets up the Voice after a successful referendum,” Dodson said.

Speaking in the parliament on the latest Closing the Gap report on Wednesday, Albanese gave his strongest signal yet that the referendum to enshrine the Voice in the Constitution will be held in 2023, saying: “there’s an opportunity in the second half of next year to do better”.

The government has narrowed the timing down to four options – July, August, October or December.

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney confirmed this week that the government would not publicly fund a formal Yes or No case, and instead use taxpayer funds for a neutral civics educational campaign, leaving it up to both sides to privately fundraise for their campaigns.

In question time on Wednesday, Albanese pointed to a 2021 report by Indigenous academics Marcia Langton and Tom Calma, commissioned by the former Morrison government, saying it contained “280 pages of detail about how the Voice will operate”.

The report includes a proposed model for the Voice of 24 members, comprising two from each state, territory and the Torres Strait and a further five members from remote areas of the NT, WA, Queensland, WA and SA and a Torres Strait Islander living on the mainland. There would be two co-chairs of different genders who serve two-year terms and who would be paid as the positions would be full-time roles.

However, the Albanese government has not formally adopted this model as the one it will seek to legislate following the referendum.

Former Liberal Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt, who served in the Morrison government, told ABC Radio he took the report to cabinet twice, and accused those calling for more detail of “laziness” by not reading the report.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.

Most Viewed in Politics

From our partners

Source: Read Full Article