A Yes vote is the most practical way to improve Aboriginal lives, SA Voice Commissioner Dale Agius says

A Yes vote is the most practical way to improve Aboriginal lives, reduce waste and improve Australia’s governance, according to SA Voice Commissioner Dale Agius.

A Yes vote in Saturday’s referendum will provide a “generational’’ opportunity for change and the best chance to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians, according to the commissioner of the SA Voice to Parliament Dale Agius.

Mr Agius said a successful referendum would make a practical difference to the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, improve government decision-making and reduce waste.

He said it was clear the current system was failing Indigenous people as shown by the poorer life expectancy, health, education, employment and incarceration statistics documented in successive Closing the Gap and Productivity Commission reports

“I think we can no longer present the argument that the status quo is good enough,’’ he said.

SA’s Commissioner for a First Nations Voice Dale Agius. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

“The current system is broken and when something is broken in any other area of business, we move quickly and swiftly to fix it.

“This is a generational opportunity to do that, because this has been going on for decades. I think this is a game changer.’’

Mr Agius conducted widespread consultation within Aboriginal communities before state parliament passed legislation to establish a Voice this year before elections in 2024 and said a common theme was that communities weren’t being listened to.

“The overwhelming feedback I got when I was doing our regional consultations here in South Australia was that communities feel either isolated, invisible or disconnected from local authorities, local school working groups, local councils,’’ he said.

Mr Agius said while many policies, such as the widespread adoption of Reconciliation Action Plans, started good intentions, they benefited organisations more than the people on the ground.

“Engaging in the Reconciliation Action Plans locally, felt a little bit disjointed, or a tick a box exercise to suit state government or federal government,’’ he said.

Mr Agius said Aboriginal people were also sick of the waste of money contained in many programs that were designed to help.

“The feedback I have got from Aboriginal communities here is that they there tired of the waste themselves,’’ he said.

“If we were able to have more informed decisions going on to further decades into the future, we will have more positive outcomes for Aboriginal communities and we have less public waste, and we’ll have more positive outcomes going across the board for all Australians.’’

Mr Agius said the Voice was a simple proposition designed to unite the nation and pointed out that in December 2020, the then Commissioner for Aboriginal Engagement Dr Roger Thomas had stood in the House of Assembly and addressed the parliament.

“The members of parliament were then able to hear directly from our communities in an independent way, which was based on their problems and needs of those people not based on political narratives,’’ he said.

Mr Agius urged anyone who didn’t understand what the Voice was trying to achieve to “please look at the principles, please read the Uluru Statement from the Heart and look into some factual information around how enhancing our parliament is a good thing’’.

Originally published as A Yes vote is the most practical way to improve Aboriginal lives, SA Voice Commissioner Dale Agius says