Indigenous voice to parliament: have your say on the voice proposal
As Australians prepare for a referendum on the Indigenous voice to parliament, nowhere else will you find the depth of coverage and breadth of opinion on this nation-changing debate than here at The Australian. Here’s a taste of some of the best.
Megan Davis: ‘Together we can change nation for the better’
Constitutional recognition for First Nations people will transform lives because it will be born from the agency of Australians. Watering down the proposal is a sure-fire way to cause the failure of the referendum.
Megan Davis is the Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law and Pro Vice Chancellor Society at University of NSW.
Noel Pearson: ‘Conservatives eat their own words on the voice’
Those who helped devise the voice proposal are now backing away from it. Fickleness seems a common characteristic among those with political power to change Indigenous lives.
Australia doesn’t make sense without recognition. Until the First Peoples are afforded our rightful place, we are a nation missing its most vital heart.
Noel Pearson is a director of Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition.
Janet Albrechtsen: ‘Voice activists, not lawyers, are behind this dishonest debate’
A referendum result procured by fraud and misrepresentation will damage reconciliation, perhaps beyond repair.
The gamble by Yes activists that we would not look too hard at the proposed wording and its consequences, or stand up to bullying, has manifestly failed.
Janet Albrechtsen is an opinion columnist with The Australian. She has worked as a solicitor in commercial law, and attained a Doctorate of Juridical Studies from the University of Sydney.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price: ‘Voice risks perpetuating a long history of failure’
Many of the Indigenous leaders pushing Yes have already had a seat at the power table for years, receiving hundreds of millions in taxpayer grants to close the gap. The Albanese government’s proposed voice is the wrong way to recognise Aboriginal people, or help Aborigines in need.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is a Country Liberal Party senator for the Northern Territory.
Chris Kenny: ‘Unclear voice? Here are 15 key questions answered’
Labor has failed to do the hard yards of informed advocacy. So here is some clarity and light on the detail of the proposed Indigenous voice.
There have been nasty slurs by Yes advocates, describing No advocates as being driven by racism. But conservatives cannot claim victimhood.
Commentator, author and former political adviser, Chris Kenny hosts Chris Kenny Tonight.
Greg Craven: ‘No triumph of negotiation but a ruthless con job’
Anthony Albanese’s much-hyped revelation of his constitutional words for the voice puts the final bullet through the head of the referendum.
Australians are primed to listen to their Indigenous brothers and sisters. But a campaign based on recrimination and rejection will surely fail.
Greg Craven is a constitutional lawyer and a member of the government’s constitutional expert group.
Nyunggai Warren Mundine: ‘Professor Craven, here are your 10 answers on the voice’
The Emeritus Professor’s nose seems firmly out of joint that many Australians aren’t embracing the voice, including many Indigenous people like me. This might help him get it.
Nyunggai Warren Mundine is director of the Indigenous Forum at the Centre for Independent Studies.
Tony Abbott: ‘Vote ‘No’ to Trojan horse voice that divides us’
I’d prefer to avoid the moral scorn that will be directed at Indigenous voice to parliament critics. But in the absence of an 11th-hour prime ministerial change of heart, it’s absolutely necessary that Australia vote No.
Tony Abbott was the 28th prime minister of Australia, 2013-15.
Marcia Langton: ‘Cultural warriors shamed by confected outrage over voice’
I support a referendum with a simple question: Yes or no to a voice? I also support the democratic notion that voters have a right to be accurately informed about what they are voting for.
The dreadful problems we are seeing in Alice Springs have become fodder for the likes of Peter Dutton and Lidia Thorpe.
Professor Marcia Langton is associate provost and foundation chair in Australian Indigenous Studies at Melbourne University.
Linda Burney: ‘The voice is an idea whose time has come’
There are moments in history when people come together to stand for something important, and a massive wave of goodwill builds that moves us all forward.
We’ve made barely any progress on reducing the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. It’s time to do things differently. Now is the time.
Linda Burney is the federal Minister for Indigenous Australians and the member for Barton.
Peta Credlin: ‘Lidia Thorpe has revealed the real Blak agenda’
By blowing up the sovereignty issue, the Greens defector might have inadvertently shaken voters out of their complacency.
The final abolition of Australia Day as we have known it might be the very least of the changes the voice seeks to foist upon us.
Peta Credlin AO is a weekly columnist with The Australian and a Sky News host.
Ken Wyatt: ‘Indigenous voice must speak for local communities’
For too long government has done things to Indigenous Australians, not with them.
Our people want to be heard and included in decisions that affect them and their lives.
Ken Wyatt is a former Coalition minister for Indigenous Australians.
Dennis Shanahan: ‘Albanese’s double talk is more hot air than argument’
The Prime Minister’s belief that emotion and goodwill from people towards Indigenous Australians will carry the voice to parliament is leading him into serious mistakes.
The voice does not exist and yet it has already had a massive victory in entrenching its ability to intervene in advance, without limit, in any commonwealth decision.
Dennis Shanahan is The Australian’s National Editor.
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