Burney fails to unveil critical details on the Indigenous voice to parliament

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney has listed the policy priorities on which she will ask the Indigenous voice to provide advice (“Health, education, jobs and housing top focus for new body, says Burney”, 5/7).

But will the voice be obliged to comply? Ms Burney also says “unlike government, it won’t be distracted by the three-year election cycles”.

Does that mean its members won’t be elected but appointed? Why are these critical details being kept from us?

The details she outlines seem like a bundle of parochial micromanagement issues well outside what our federal government normally deals with.

Paul Prociv, Mount Mellum, Qld

There is no doubt that Linda Burney and the Labor federal government genuinely wish to close the gap for Aboriginal citizens and facilitate meaningful change.

However, amending the Constitution is not the right way forward, especially given the record number of federal Indigenous members of parliament we now have, and the fact the commonwealth already is awash with layers of well-remunerated bureaucracy, such as the 1400-staffed, $4.5bn-funded National Indigenous Australians Agency.

The agency’s stated job is to “build and maintain effective partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people … and enable policies, programs and services to be tailored to the unique needs of communities”.

The problem with the impending referendum is that, unlike a preferential system election, this vote will be binary.

The way I see it, there would be no shame with Labor saying that it has listened and reconsidered, and will thus take a referendum concerning only Indigenous constitutional recognition to the people later this year, and then commit to refining those initiatives that are working in regional and rural Australia, and jettisoning those that are not.

Peter Waterhouse, Craigieburn, Vic

Minister Linda Burney is trying to shape the untenable voice into something more acceptable for the Australian people.

She is in damage control as the voice support continues to be in free fall from voters who are cynical and wary of the implications of the voice on every issue for every Australian.

Mary-Anne Higgins, Rose Park, SA

If, as Linda Burney says, the four policy priorities of the voice are health, education, jobs and housing and that she will be looking to the voice for “fresh ideas”, then we know this.

Ms Burney and the Prime Minister could have been more honest with the Australian people had they admitted this before the last election. Instead of being told “Labor had a plan”, Anthony Albanese could have told us Labor in fact was bereft of any plans in the four main policy areas confronting us today.

Further, for Ms Burney to now tell us the voice will be planning for the next generation rather than the here and now would have been warning enough that the voice will neither be effective nor accountable on any matter.

Geoff Ellis, Smithfield, Qld

Support for the voice is falling largely because more people are becoming aware of the real risks arising from its unlimited scope that is clearly facilitated by the proposed constitutional amendment. Up bounds the Indigenous Australians Minister, who will have responsibility for drafting the legislation, with her solution. She will tell the voice what issues it can comment on.

That fails on two counts. Obviously, she will be the minister for only a finite time; and second, this is exactly the opposite of what was proposed in the Uluru Statement from the Heart and what we have all been told repeatedly is the greatest achievement of the voice, that the representations will be driven by the needs of the most disadvantaged Indigenous people who mostly live in remote communities.

She has provided no clues as to how her legislation will make that possible and can’t guarantee she can get it through parliament.

Ian Wilson, Chapel Hill, Qld

If the voice may make independent representations to the government – presumably ground up – then why is Minister Burney presuming to ask it to advise her on specific issues she has chosen? (“Minister’s Indigenous voice box of priorities”, 5/7)

Bert Hoebee, Waramanga, ACT