Voice referendum ‘now urgent’: Indigenous leaders

Aboriginal leaders urging a Morrison or Albanese government to hold a referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament.

Megan Davis is embraced by Nolan Hunter during the Uluru Statement from the Heart forum in Cairns. Picture: Bang Media

Aboriginal leaders are urging a Morrison or Albanese government to hold a referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament on May 27 next year or on January 27, 2024.

The urgent call was issued on Sunday by the most significant gathering of cultural leaders since 250 Indigenous delegates asked for a constitutionally enshrined voice in the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart. This guaranteed that the legal status of the Indigenous voice – that is, whether it is to be constitutionally enshrined or legislated only – becomes the major election issue in Indigenous affairs.

The leaders have chosen two possible Saturdays: next May on the 56th anniversary of the 1967 referendum that changed the Constitution so the commonwealth could make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people or on January 27, 2024 – 236 years and one day since the establishment of a British colony in Sydney Cove.

Creators of the Uluru statement - including Sydney Peace Prize winners Pat Anderson, Megan Davis and Noel Pearson - joined senior law men and traditional owners on Sunday in the far north Queensland community of Yarrabah where Alfred Neal and other Indigenous activists planned the campaign for the most successful referendum in Australian history.

On May 27, 1967, 90.77 per cent of Australian voters said yes to constitutional changes that meant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people would be counted as part of the population and the commonwealth would be able to make laws for them.

Megan Davis, a Cobble Cobble woman and Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law at the University of NSW, said Sunday’s written call for a referendum - called the Yarrabah Affirmation - stressed the matter was now urgent. The statement also says the referendum will succeed.

“After years of pushing for our voice to be heard, it feels like we have never been this close. The constitutional recognition discussion has been going for well over a decade. The hard work is done. We are ready. The Australian people are ready,” Professor Davis said.

The leaders met at Yarrabah to honour the 1967 campaigners.

“Survivors like Alfie Neal and Ruth Hennings are living symbols of what can be achieved when Australians work together to change the nation,” Professor Davis said. “We are saying the nation is ready to go to a referendum in the next term of parliament.

“It’s necessary because there’s been multi-party support for constitutional recognition for well over a decade. And there are many propitious and perfect dates to hold it in our sights.

“A referendum needs to be held on a Saturday and we have singled out two examples of historical dates that would align. One is the anniversary of the Uluru statement and the 1967 referendum, another is the day after Invasion Day/Australia Day.”

The Coalition has kept its 2019 election promise to progress the design of an Indigenous voice as an advisory body without making any commitment to take the voice to a referendum.

Senior Indigenous researchers Tom Calma and Marcia Langton oversaw a co-design process that led to a report in December 2021 recommending the creation of 35 local and regional voices to advise government as a first step.

Labor has pledged to hold a referendum in the first term of an Albanese government, though Linda Burney told The Australian: “The logic has always been in the first term of a Labor government, but you don’t have a referendum if you don’t think you are going to win it.”

Anthony Albanese on Sunday said he would want a referendum on a voice to parliament in his first term as prime minister.

“I would consult with First ­Nations people about the timing and detail of that,” the Opposition Leader told SBS.

“I’d want us as well to reach across the aisle and we know historically to get constitutional change you need bipartisan support to do that.

“ I would be hopeful we would have a mandate, very clearly, from the Australian­ ­people, if we are elected. We should be proud of the fact our history includes the oldest continuous civilisation on the planet.”

Earlier on Sunday, Professor Davis said: “We welcome the ALP’s support for a referendum on a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament. We recognise Anthony Albanese’s commitment to a first-term referendum.

“To the Coalition we say, you’ve been a part of this constitutional recognition journey for 16 years. The meat is on the bones of a voice, the work is done. We are ready to go.

“History is calling.”

additional reporting: Greg Brown