SA will have a Voice to parliament up and running by the end of the year

The South Australian government now has the majority support needed in the upper house for a state-based Voice to Parliament to be legislated next month.

South Australia will become the first state in the country to have an elected Indigenous Voice to parliament after the SA Greens confirmed they would back the state government’s proposal.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister and Attorney-General Kyam Maher has pledged to have the state’s Voice operational by the end of this year.

He will introduce his First Nations Voice to Parliament Bill 2023 to parliament next month and said the SA Voice would be an advisory body made up of “elected” Aboriginal people who would give input on the decisions that “affect their lives”.

Greens MLC Tammy Franks. Picture: Cath Leo

“What SA is proposing is an Australian first – a fully elected Aboriginal body that will not only be a Voice to our parliament, but a Voice within our parliament,” Mr Maher said.

“This will be done through a series of elected local Aboriginal Voices and from there they will form a statewide Voice that will have the ability to make an annual address to a joint sitting of parliament every year.

“(The Voice will also have the) ability to speak on the floor of parliament on any piece of legislation, provide reports to parliament on matters of interest and to have regular meetings with cabinet and chief executives.”

Mr Maher said he expected elections for people to sit on the SA Voice to take place this year.

“By the end of 2023, we would like to see Aboriginal peoples’ voices being heard in our parliament,” he said.

The SA Voice will operate regardless of the fate of the federal government’s planned referendum on a national Voice to parliament.

Greens MLC Tammy Franks on Thursday declared her party’s full support.

“I look forward to working with the government to see the fruition of a state First Nations’ Voice to parliament,” she said.

“The South Australian Greens’ membership and importantly the First Nations leadership of our party have been clear in their commitment to supporting the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full.

“That includes progressing truth-telling and treaty or treaties.”

Ms Franks said the SA Voice would be the “first step in important Makarrata work and supporting the “Yes” campaign in the referendum later this year.”

Mr Maher’s draft Voice model, announced after a three-month engagement process with SA’s Aboriginal community last year, includes 40 members from six regions across the state.

SA’s Commissioner for First Nations Voice Dale Agius and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kyam Maher. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

The model is in its second round of engagement to incorporate views and suggestions that have been put forward during consultations held by SA’s Commissioner for First Nations Voice Dale Agius along with written submissions.

Liberal Leader David Speirs said he would need to see more detail on the government’s bill before offering his party’s support but maintained that “clearly as a party we see a need for such a vehicle’’.

“In a broad sense, we’re supportive of an engagement body,’’ he said.

Mr Speirs said the Marshall government’s proposed Aboriginal Representative Bill 2022, was a simpler model than the Labor alternative.

“Labor’s body that they seek to set up is very complex and we’ve got a lot of questions around its working,” he said.

Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney congratulated the Malinauskas government on establishing the Voice.

“I have said previously that it is a model worthy of consideration at the national level,” Ms Burney said.

Originally published as SA will have a Voice to parliament up and running by the end of the year