Time right for First Nations ‘voice’ in constitution, say advocates

Australians will be told history is calling them to support an Indigenous voice in the constitution in a referendum education campaign launched on Monday.

Professor Megan Davis said the History is Calling campaign was an opportunity for all Australians. Picture: Supplied

Australians will be told history is calling them to support an Indigenous voice in the constitution in a referendum education campaign launched on Monday.

Indigenous leaders and communities behind the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart will spend the final weeks of the federal election campaign urging Australians to act and support a First Nations voice to parliament with a constitutional shield. The poster, social media and newspaper campaign tells voters: “History is Calling.”

The Coalition funded a design process for the Indigenous voice overseen by Indigenous professors Marcia Langton and Tom Calma. Their final report, written after consultations around Australia, said the voice would provide non-binding advice to parliament on matters that overwhelmingly impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. There would be no power of veto on legislation. The Morrison government supports a legislated voice but has not supported a referendum to ask Australians if they want a reference to the voice added to the constitution.

Labor, however, has pledged to work towards a referendum on this question in the first term of an Albanese government. Greens leader Adam Bandt said his party did not intend to block this, but it wanted a process of truth telling and a treaty first. Critics of the Greens platform claim that could take a decade and would set back the voice indefinitely.

Professor Megan Davis, the Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law at the University of NSW, said the History is Calling campaign was an opportunity for all Australians.