Torres Strait talking: strong Indigenous voice, less red tape

Torres Strait Island residents will tell Anthony Albanese they are over-governed and under-represented when he visits Thursday ­Island to discuss Labor’s plan for an Indigenous voice.

Torres Strait Island Regional Council mayor Phillemon Mosby.

Torres Strait Island residents will tell Anthony Albanese they are over-governed and under-represented when he visits Thursday ­Island to discuss Labor’s plan for an Indigenous voice to parliament.

The visit by Mr Albanese and Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney begins a series of promised consultations about what an Indigenous voice – an ­Aboriginal and Torres Strait ­Islander advisory body – should look like.

The Prime Minister and Ms Burney will listen to Thursday ­Island residents’ hopes and expectations for the voice at a “come one, come all” meeting. It is one of many Labor intends to hold before Australians vote on whether the Constitution should guarantee the existence of an Indigenous voice to parliament. The structure of the voice would be a matter for parliament.

“We’ll go to Thursday Island and we’ll also have a ‘come one, come all’ forum in the afternoon,” Mr Albanese said on Wednesday. “I want to engage with Australians – both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians – to consult with them.”

Torres Strait Island Regional Council mayor Phillemon Mosby said he intended to tell Mr Albanese and Ms Burney that he personally saw the voice as extremely important for his people because they were a minority within a minority. Mr Mosby said he believed the voice would help his people cut through excessive bureaucracy. His people had been unsuccessfully pushing for a single layer of government since he could ­remember.

“We are not asking to be a separate state, we are asking them to better organise so money comes into one body of government and overheads are reduced,” he said. “The structures here are very, very complicated and it is death by legislation.”

Mr Mosby was among Torres Strait Island residents who attended one of 13 meetings across Australia that led to the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart and its call for a constitutionally ­enshrined Indigenous voice. He was not the mayor at the time but was among locals chosen at the Thursday Island meeting to travel to Uluru for the final three-day convention to represent his community. He said they did not want symbolic constitutional recognition, such as a mention in the preamble.

“People were dead serious they wanted something more that gave us our rightful place in this country, in terms of representation as well,” he said.

Labor’s special envoy for the Uluru Statement from the Heart, Pat Dodson, will continue Labor’s consultations in the Aboriginal community of Kalkarindji, 480km southwest of Katherine, on September 1. He is due to meet leaders from four land councils then listen to locals and visitors from communities and towns throughout the NT at the annual Freedom Festival on September 2.

Labor has not committed to releasing a fully formed model of the voice before the referendum. However, Mr Albanese, Ms Burney and Senator Dodson have ­ indicated that broad consultations will help to settle details of how the voice will work and what it will look like before Australians vote.

Ms Burney was due to hold a meeting of state and territory ­Indigenous affairs ministers late on Wednesday. Each minister was expected to provide an update on their progress on the three elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart – voice, treaty and truth. The meeting was also due to discuss progress on Closing the Gap targets and a “work for the dole” program to replace the former Liberal government’s troubled Community Development Program.