We want a voice now: Langton

Marcia Langton warns against delaying creating an advisory body because there is not political consensus on constitutional enshrinement.

‘If the nervous Nellies can see our proposal working, people will overcome their hysteria,’ says Marcia Langton. Picture: David Geraghty

Marcia Langton says Indigenous people “want a voice now” as she warns against delaying creating the advisory body because there is not political consensus on constitutional enshrinement.

Professor Langton, the co-chair of the panel designing a proposed “voice to government”, praised Liberal senator Andrew Bragg for using a new book to push the Coalition to support the full recommendations from the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

She said legislating the Indigenous advisory body could convince “nervous Nellies” in the Coalition that there was nothing to fear by protecting the voice in the nation’s birth certificate.

Professor Langton’s panel will hand its final design recommendations to the government in July, but Scott Morrison has ruled out the Uluru statement’s proposal for constitutional enshrinement.

“What we are doing is important because the government at the moment will not commit to constitutional enshrinement, but it appears to be committed to what we are doing,” she said. “If the nervous Nellies can see our proposal working, ­people will overcome their hysteria about a permanent place for Indigenous people in the nation with their own ability to advise governments.”

Noel Pearson is among prominent Indigenous figures arguing that the voice should not be legislated until its existence is protected in the Constitution through a referendum.

Professor Langton said, in her consultations in co-designing the voice, people “don’t know much or care much for the constitutional niceties … They want to have a say on the policies that are being implemented in their communities. Frankly, most people have not heard of that proposal (a constitutionally enshrined voice).

“They do ask, ‘How do we know it won’t be shut down like ATSIC was in 2004?’ I say we can’t guarantee anything.”

In his book Buraadja, which means “tomorrow” in the Dhurga language, Senator Bragg says there should be a referendum on the voice in the next term of parliament. He said adoption of the voice had been stymied by “misrepresentations and falsehoods” and Australia could not achieve true reconciliation without giving Indigenous people input on the laws governing their lives.

The book is being launched by prominent Liberals, including Josh Frydenberg, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and SA Premier Steven Marshall.