Outcome of Indigenous voice to parliament inquiry rated poor

The Labor-dominated committee responsible for examining the constitutional amendment to enshrine an Indigenous voice to parliament was ‘inconsiderate’ of alternative views and ­conducted a ‘poor’ inquiry.

Uphold and Recognise chairman Sean Gordon.

The Labor-dominated committee responsible for examining the constitutional amendment to enshrine an Indigenous voice to parliament was “inconsiderate” of alternative views and ­conducted a “poor” inquiry, a member of the government’s referendum working group says.

Sean Gordon, chair of right-leaning and Indigenous-led think-tank Uphold and Recognise, said the handing down of just one recommendation after the “rushed” six-week inquiry did not give parliamentarians enough “room to move” on the wording.

“The outcome of the parliamentary committee was pretty poor. To make a single recommendation, for me I thought it was very … inconsiderate of the broader outcome,” he told The Australian.

While respecting his fellow referendum working group members’ decision to advise the reference to “executive government” be kept in the amendment, Mr Gordon said he still harboured concerns around the “broad” powers this would give to the voice.

Rather than allow the voice to make representations to “executive government”, which could include department secretaries and other public servants, Mr Gordon said the wording needed to be narrower to ensure more people would support the proposed amendment.

“There were quite a large number of people in the committee hearings who identified this (wording) as a challenge. Now if simply shifting from ‘executive government’, to the ‘ministers of the crown’ is a way of bringing those undecided on board, then that for me is a simple solution,” he said.

Mr Gordon said keeping reference to “executive government” in the amendment would give the No campaign an effective tool with which to convince people to vote against the referendum, due between October and December.

It comes as new polling shows a steady drop in the support for the voice, which Mr Gordon said needed to be taken seriously by politicians when the constitutional amendment came before parliament next week.

While the committee report on the amendment, handed down on Friday, advised for parliament to pass the set of words without change, Liberals and Nationals issued dissenting reports attacking the insufficient six-week time frame.