Andrew Bolt: Anthony Albanese’s Aboriginal parliament just one more voice in a cacophony

Why do so many journalists claim Anthony Albanese’s plan for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament is harmless when it could become extremely powerful?

Anthony Albanese’s trap is in front of your eyes. Why do so many journalists claim his plan for a parliament just for Aborigines is “modest” and harmless?

That trap is the third of the three clauses the Prime Minister wants to put in our constitution – the one that can make that so-called “advisory” parliament in fact a kind of race-based government with real teeth.

This clause will let a future Australian government give this Aboriginal parliament real “powers” and “functions”, even to operate as a de facto Aboriginal government.

What a dishonest debate this is. And how we’ll pay if Australians are sucked in by the lies told to sell this racism.

The biggest lie is Albanese’s claim this Aboriginal parliament he wants us to vote for in a referendum is just about “good manners”, so governments finally consult Aborigines as they do other Australians.

“It is no different from the fact that we consult women’s organisations if you want to have an impact on women,” he cooed.

But there is no separate parliament just for women in our constitution. Nor do we have separate parliaments for gays, Greeks, Muslims, or our more than one million ethnic Chinese.

What’s more, Aboriginal groups are already consulted – at length. They include a Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council, more than 30 land councils, more than 2700 Aboriginal corporations and the Council of Peaks, representing 70 top Aboriginal organisations. We also have 11 MPs in federal parliament who identify as Aboriginal.

Albanese’s Aboriginal parliament would be just one more voice in a cacophony. But ‘one more voice’ is obviously not what Albanese wants. Picture: Gary Ramage

Albanese’s Aboriginal parliament would be just one more voice in a cacophony. But “one more voice” is obviously not what Albanese wants.

That brings me to the second big lie – and the trap.

The second lie is this racist parliament, called the Voice, will just be “advisory”.

“This isn’t a body that is on top of the parliament, it’s not even at the side of the parliament, it doesn’t seek to usurp the power of the parliament,” Albanese said.

Commentators have rushed to agree that this Aboriginal parliament won’t have real power. It’s just there to make suggestions to our Australian parliament.

First, I’m amazed they could be so blind or naive. Do they really think Aboriginal activists will be satisfied with a parliament that’s got no power? A beads-and-blankets excuse for a real black parliament?

In fact, the ABC’s indigenous affairs editor is already demanding it have real “power” and be “feared”. This will inevitably be the next demand.

And Albanese’s trap, in plain sight, is that he can give just that.

Once we vote yes for this Aboriginal parliament, any future Australian government can give it all the power it wants.

The question you’ll actually be asked in the referendum is innocent and bland: “Do you support an alteration to the constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice?’’

The Australian government will remain sovereign, but it could make this Aboriginal parliament extremely powerful, running programs and even administering territories. Picture: AAP

But if you vote “yes”, the words that actually get written into the constitution are three clauses Albanese has now revealed.

Clause 1 and 2 say there will be this “Voice” that “may make representations to parliament and the executive government on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples” – which, in fact, could include everything from taxation to national defence, from education to global warming.

But the trap is in clause 3: “The parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to the composition, functions, powers and procedures of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.”

Alert: a future Australian parliament can give this Aboriginal parliament “functions” and “powers”.

But what functions? What powers? No one can predict.

Yes, the Australian government will remain sovereign, but it could make this Aboriginal parliament extremely powerful, running programs and even administering territories, much like a racist government of an Aboriginal state.

That could happen under an Albanese government with a simple vote of parliament, with Labor voting with the Greens and a teal independent in the Senate. Does anyone think such a Senate would say no to an Aboriginal parliament having some power?

Or what of some future government – even a Greens/teals one? Remember, once we put this Aboriginal parliament in our constitution, it will almost certainly be there forever.

Some will protest that I’m being too alarmist. Of course, we shouldn’t have this kind of apartheid in Australia!

Then why does Albanese’s third clause not rule it out? Why doesn’t it insist this Aboriginal parliament will always be just an advisory body, with no power?

What’s the real game here?