Elected body a possible framework for national indigenous voice

The ACT’s democratically elected indigenous advisory body has been identified as a potential model for a nationwide ‘voice to government’.

Indigenous leader Tom Calma. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

The ACT’s democratically elected indigenous advisory body has been identified as a potential model for a nationwide “voice to government”.

Indigenous leader Tom Calma, the co-chair of the Morrison government’s expert group that will co-design a voice, said the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body ­ (ATSIEB) was a framework being considered for a national voice.

The representative ACT body was established in 2008 and consists of seven members who are elected by indigenous people in Canberra. The elections run over NAIDOC week every three years and are managed by the ACT Electoral Commission.

Members from the group, who work part-time, meet the territory’s department heads and the indigenous affairs minister every month to express any concerns or ideas about policy. Cabinet meets with the ATSIEB every year.

There is no legal requirement to consult the body on any piece of legislation, leaving more flexibility than other proposed models that would require a “voice” to review any bill that impacts ­indigenous Australians.

ATSIEB also holds Senate ­estimates-like hearings every year, with the ACT government required to respond to the body’s report on the findings.

Professor Calma said the ACT’s framework had merits but could be “more challenging” to roll out nationally, noting there would need to be amendments for it to work on a larger scale.

“If you take, for example, the ACT indigenous representative body, which is done by public election for all Aboriginal people in the ACT, and it is a very effective body that is working with the ACT government,” Professor Calma said. “That is one of the ones that we can say is working. That is being looked at. It has been in place since 2008 and it is working.”

Under the Morrison government’s proposal for a voice, there will be regional and local voices developed, as well as a national voice. Existing bodies such as the ACT’s would likely remain under any reform.

 

Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt said on Sunday he was optimistic that both a legis­lated voice to government and constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people could be achieved within the parliamentary term.

ATSIEB chair Katrina Fanning said it was good the body was not legally required to review legislation that would impact indigenous people. “If it is too prescriptive, it means that people think they can’t seek our input on what would be seen as mainstream policy agendas that actually impact on us as well,” she said. “We are not then tied up with what the government thinks is important to us. We can select what we think is important and put our efforts to that. So it is us directing.”

ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said she always took guidance from ­ATSIEB on issues impacting indigenous people. “There is no obligation to consult the elected body in relation to legislation and that is something I would be open to looking at,” she said. “But we do have accountability measures. I think there are benefits in allowing the elected body to determine what their priorities are and what they want to engage with.”

The Australian reported on Monday that suggested models on the voice would be presented to Mr Wyatt in July or August.