It is not democratic for the rest of us to have a separate parliament – an advisory one for now – for people of just one race

The Albanese government’s planned justification for the Voice is fake and shows that the Left has stopped believing in democracy.

I feared the federal Liberals were walking into a trap – until Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney did something silly late on Sunday.

I’ve been shocked that the Liberals under Peter Dutton wouldn’t say straight out they’re against the Albanese government’s planned Voice – a kind of advisory parliament just for Aborigines, written forever into our Constitution.

Dutton should be saying: Are you crazy? This is racism. This is apartheid. Absolutely no.

Instead, he’s demanded the government show us the details before he makes up his mind – and that, I thought, was Labor’s trap.

The government could suddenly say, well, here are those details you wanted, and what would the Liberals do then? Quibble over mere details? Or say, actually, we’re against this because of a fundamental principle we’ve only just remembered – um, it’s racist.

Dutton should be saying to the Albanese government: Are you crazy? Picture: AAP

But maybe I made a mistake: underestimating the stupidity of people pushing this Voice.

On Sunday, stung by Dutton, Burney fired off a string of tweets which let slip that Labor’s Voice could be the most undemocratic organisation ever to “represent” Aborigines.

Burney tweeted this Voice would be “chosen by First Nations people based on the wishes of local communities”.

Wait. “Chosen”? Why didn’t she say “elected”?

Then the penny dropped: Burney is following the blueprint in the final report to government of the Indigenous Voice Co-design Process, co-chaired by professors Marcia Langton and Tom Calma.

This report recommends the Voice comprise 24 Aborigines, with each region deciding “how best to draw its voice members (i.e. election, nomination/expressions of interest/selection, drawing on structures based in traditional law and custom, or a combination)”.

Pardon? It’s saying some people on the Voice may be elected. But maybe they’ll just nominate themselves, or be selected (by whom?) according to “traditional law”.

The report recommends the Voice comprise 24 Aborigines.

That means the big men and powerful families who dominate some tribes could stop any election that might let a rival get themselves onto the Voice to disturb their power. This is astonishing. Australia’s core value is democracy, the guarantor of our freedoms. We also preach democracy to the world. To China. To the Pacific.

But now the Albanese government is quietly deciding that, actually, some Aborigines can’t handle this democracy. They’re too different. Let the big men keep ruling.

That’s tragic. When did the Left stop believing in democracy?

But Burney tweeted something else – this Voice “will be representative of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities”. That’s not quite true, either.

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney tweeted that the Voice would be ‘chosen by First Nations people based on the wishes of local communities’. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

We have more than 250 Aboriginal tribes, but Labor’s Co-design report recommends the Voice have just 24 members.

So already smaller tribes look like getting pushed aside by more powerful ones with a different language and agenda.

But it gets even less democratic. This Voice, under the Co-design plan, will have an outrageous gerrymander.

It will have two members from each state and territory, two more from the Torres Strait, plus one more for Torres Strait Islanders on the mainland and five for Aborigines in remote areas of some states and the Northern Territory.

That means Aborigines in the ACT will have one representative on the Voice for every 4720 people, and Torres Strait Islanders one for every 11,000. NT Aborigines will have one representative for every 25,500.

In contrast, Aborigines in the states with the biggest Aboriginal population will have, proportionately, much less representation.

Smaller tribes look like getting pushed aside by more powerful ones with a different language and agenda. Picture: Richard Serong

Queensland Aborigines will have one representative for every 91,100 people, and NSW Aborigines one for every 113,200. So Canberra Aborigines will have more than 20 times more say on the Voice than NSW ones.

In what meaningful way is this Voice “representative”? This is not democratic. Nor is it democratic for the rest of us to have a separate parliament – an advisory one for now – for people of just one race.

Even the justification for this farce is fake. Linda Burney in her tweets claimed we needed this Voice to give Aborigines “a say in decisions affecting them”.

That’s nonsense. Aborigines are already consulted. Like everyone else, they vote for our parliaments. In fact, nearly 5 per cent of our federal politicians say they’re Aboriginal, when Aborigines make up less than 4 per cent of our population.

On top of that we have more than 30 Aboriginal land councils, more than 2700 Aboriginal corporations, a Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council and a Council of Peaks representing about 70 big Aboriginal groups.

But worse than the lies to sell the Voice is that it’s undemocratic – not just for Aborigines but every other Australian. What a disgrace.

Originally published as It is not democratic for the rest of us to have a separate parliament – an advisory one for now – for people of just one race