The key detail in Aboriginal-only, advisory Voice to Parliament PM Anthony Albanese won’t discuss

With its members to be selected rather than elected, the Voice to Parliament is undemocratic and set to divide Aboriginal Australia — it’s also likely to take years to set up.

One of the weirdest things about Labor’s Voice to Parliament is that no one knows how – or even when – it would ever be chosen.

In fact, it’s likely to take years to set up, and to tear Aboriginal Australia apart.

That’s because there’s one key detail about this Aboriginal-only advisory parliament that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese won’t discuss.

The Voice is undemocratic. Its 24 members will be selected, not elected, by a national vote of Aborigines.

That’s spelled out in the Voice to Parliament co-design report by activists Marcia Langton and Tom Calma, which the Albanese government uses as a blueprint.

Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese meeting with Yes23 volunteers in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman

This report claims democracy is bad for Aborigines because “consistently low voter turnout ... could affect the legitimacy and authority of the National Voice.” In other words, most Aborigines don’t care and wouldn’t vote, which would expose the Voice as an activists’ picnic.

What’s more, elections would raise “issues around eligibility, particularly with regard to confirming indigeneity, which has historically been divisive in some communities.”

Yes, many Aborigines would complain that fake Aborigines were elected.

So the Langton/Calma report says Voice members should instead be drawn from “local and regional Voices” that haven’t actually been set up yet, either.

No one even knows how those local and regional Voices would work or be picked, or where they’d be.

The report just says Aborigines in remote regions must form a “community-led ‘design group’ ” that “will draw on the perspectives and experience of existing bodies and organisations as well as community members” to figure it out.

Imagine such a design group in the Yaruwa territory around Broome, where the Yawuru Prescribed Body Corporate dominates Aboriginal politics and funding.

The Voice is likely to take years to set up and will be divisive. Picture: Martin Ollman

Six of the 12 Yaruwa PBC board members are chosen by “law bosses”, including federal Labor MP Pat Dodson. All “law bosses” are men chosen by other male law bosses, and they have the casting vote. No wonder democracy isn’t welcome.

The report says the local and regional Voices will, when created, “collectively determine” who gets on the national Voice, and that “this could be done by a special meeting ... or by other means”.

So zero details, but plenty of room for bullying, legal challenges and endless talking. So much scope for the Aboriginal aristocracy that’s wasted billions of dollars to rig the Voice to keep their power, so threatened by elections.

This Voice is not an answer. It’s the start of years of division, starting among Aborigines themselves.