Wording for Indigenous voice to parliament vote not yet decided

Indigenous leaders advising Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about the voice to parliament were on Thursday unable to reach agreement on the words that should be added to the Constitution.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Indigenous leaders advising Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the Indigenous voice to parliament were on Thursday unable to reach agreement on the words that should be added to the Constitution to enshrine the advisory body.

Sources in the room said there was “no ill feeling” after what was expected to have been the final meeting of the referendum working group before it gave its advice to the Albanese government on the proposed constitutional amendment and on the question Australians will be asked on referendum day.

The meeting in Adelaide was attended by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus who has at least twice attempted to propose ­additions to the proposed amendment on the voice, including to limit “the legal effect of its ­representations”.

The Australian has been told that suggestion was not well received by most group members.

The group has listened to advice from constitutional experts on legal elements of the draft amendment. However, getting the proposed amendment through both houses of parliament is front of mind for Labor.

On Thursday, the working group briefed members of the Senate crossbench. This included Greens-turned-independent Senator Lidia Thorpe – who has previously called the referendum a waste of money – and Senator Pauline Hanson, who joined the meeting online.

The group has at least another week to settle on its preferred wording for the proposed constitutional amendment.

The Labor cabinet will then consider this before putting the final proposed words into the Constitutional Alteration Bill, to be introduced into parliament in the week starting March 27.

The Australian has been told the 21-member referendum working group was near to finalising its deliberations about the constitutional amendment after the 3½-hour meeting on Thursday afternoon. The group has met seven times since September last year to advise the government on a range of matters relating to the referendum including the wording of the proposed amendment.

The contents of the amendment have been the subject of strident public debate, partly because of concerns from some legal experts and politicians that the voice’s power to make representations to the executive government would open the possibility of High Court legal challenges.

“They are very close,” a person with knowledge of the group’s progress said.

Another person with knowledge of the group’s discussions told The Australian members had reached agreement about the question they believed should be put to voters on the day of the referendum, which Mr Albanese has said will be between October and December.

It is understood to be the same or very similar to the question he proposed in July last year: “Do you support an alteration to the Constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice?”

It is already known the referendum working group accepted the advice of an eight-member constitutional expert panel that the first words of the proposed constitutional amendment should be: “In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples as the First Peoples of Australia, there shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice”.