Indigenous ‘voice’ raised to all levels of power

Ken Wyatt has moved to break the indigenous recognition impasse.

Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt. Picture: Gary Ramage

Ken Wyatt has moved to break the impasse with Aboriginal leaders over indigenous recognition by proposing the contentious “voice to parliament” instead be a “voice to government’’ which could give it a remit to advise local, state and federal representatives.

But the body would be a legislated voice, not the constitutionally enshrined voice demanded by indigenous leaders in the Uluru Statement from the Heart but rejected by Malcolm Turnbull “as a third chamber to parliament’’, a position also shared by Scott Morrison.

Mr Wyatt, the Indigenous Australians Minister, has enlisted academics Marcia Langton and Tom Calma to lead a “co-design” process to come up with a potential model for a voice, which would give Aboriginal Australians a greater say in the way they are governed.

The process will be separate from the government’s co-­design process for the constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians, after the Prime Minister ruled out ­enshrining the voice in the Constitution.

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The proposal for a voice was born in the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart, when 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait ­Islander people agreed on the need for a body to advise federal governments on indigenous ­issues.

While a constitutionally enshrined voice has been vetoed by the Morrison government, Mr Wyatt has left the door open to a legislated body with the remit to provide input to local councils, state and federal governments and other ­institutions on policies that will impact indigenous Australians.

“We will look at voice to ­government from a community level,” Mr Wyatt told The Australian.

“When I go to communities, what they always say to me is: can somebody listen to us for a change? Can someone sort out the problem of school, or health or water supply?

“That will include a regional focus. We have empowered communities but states and territories have regional structures. I want to link to them as well in this process.”

As part of the co-design, 20 indigenous leaders and “non-­indigenous Australians with relevant expertise” will form a senior advisory group. Regional and national co-design groups will also be established.

Labor and key indigenous figures, including Noel Pearson, have criticised Mr Wyatt for pursuing the voice as a separate process from constitutional recognition.

Professor Langton has been a strident supporter of enshrining the voice in the Constitution.

The nation’s first indigenous cabinet minister has urged supporters of the Uluru Statement from the Heart to take part in the process of designing the indigenous advisory body, despite their reservations it will not be constitutionally enshrined.

Mr Wyatt said the voice would stay true to the intentions of the Uluru statement without being included in the Constitution.

He said the “bottom line” of the body would be to improve the lives of indigenous Australians.

“When you listen to that statement it is about the frustration of not being heard,” Mr Wyatt told The Australian.

“It is about the frustration at things still happening on the ground that are not being ­addressed. This gives us an opportunity design something for the future.

“I want to see young people ­access education, better than what they do and have better outcomes. Health, water and infrastructure in communities. Fundamental basic needs that any human being can expect anywhere in this country.

“When I look at the … disparity across the nation it troubles me greatly and that is why I want something in which the voices of (indigenous) people at a local level can be considered.”

Professor Calma, the Univer­sity of Canberra chancellor and former race discrimination commissioner, said a voice could ­ensure that “Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people are heard”.

“There is a divergence of views by Aboriginal people on how it should be structured,” Professor Calma said.

“We don’t want to pre-empt anything in this process but that government has made it pretty clear it is not something that will immediately go into the Constitution.

“Our job is to try and find out what will work and what is the best way to ensure that the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people, from the grassroots right through, are best heard.

“We would encourage everyone to be positive about this and see what can work.”

Mr Wyatt will on Wednesday meet New Zealand’s Maori ­Development Minister Nanala Mahuta to discuss development on an agreement between the two nations on indigenous and Maori policy.