Yes camp worrying politicians are muddy that water over Voice vote

Indigenous leaders are calling on all Australians to back the voice and give Indigenous people a say in how their affairs are run.

One of the leading voices behind restoring K’gari to its traditional name is calling on Australians to take a balanced view of the upcoming Indigenous Voice to parliament referendum.

Butchulla elder Shereene Currie is an Uluru Statement from the Heart signatory and said enshrining the Voice would give Indigenous people the tools to advocate for issues affecting them, in a way that other more powerful groups already do.

“The Voice has no veto power, it won’t sit above or below parliament but instead sit beside it,” she said.

“There are already hundreds of unofficial ‘voices’ to parliament with offices in Canberra that lobby PMs.

“There are billionaires that have a voice to parliament.

Butchulla elder Shereene Currie is an Uluru Statement from the Heart signatory and said enshrining the Voice would empower Indigenous people to advocate for issues affecting them, in a way other more powerful groups already do.

“All we are asking for is constitutional recognition of our long connection to this country and to share our wisdom with the people making the laws that affect our daily lives.”

Later this year the referendum will ask for support to alter the constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

To succeed it needs a majority of the population in a majority of the states.

The ‘Yes’ campaign has been lagging in recent weeks with the latest News Poll showing support for it has dropped to 46.7 per cent.

Supporters have started doorknocking in the Darling Downs with local volunteer co-ordinator Ahri Tallon saying they have already visited hundreds of homes.

“We were very glad to see that most people were wanting to become engaged within the Voice debate and responded well to our approach for respectful and informative conversations,” he said.

Meanwhile, on Monday night prominent anti-Voice Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price will address a crowd of 1400 people at Rumours International in Toowoomba where she will make her arguments against the proposal.

The event will be the largest gathering to date on her national tour.

In the past Senator Nampijinpa Price said she was concerned about the risk involved in constitutionally enshrining the Voice with “no detail, no understanding of functions, no understanding of the way people will be appointed or elected”.

She also doubts the Voice would actually talk up the cause of Indigenous Australians from remote and regional areas.

In response Ms Currie said politicians behind the ‘No’ campaign were “muddying the water” with misinformation.

Senator for the Northern Territory and the former deputy mayor of Alice Springs Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said she won’t support the Voice.

“The Voice is as simple as it sounds,” she said.

“It is about sharing our love, respect and wisdom and bringing that to the people who make decisions on our behalf so those decisions are wiser.”

Importantly, Ms Currie said enshrining that body in the constitution would formally recognise 60,000 year history of Indigenous people and protect from ‘whims’ future governments.

She said the key aim of the Voice is to take up the cause of frontline community organisations dedicated to addressing the causes and symptoms of the wide range of social, economic and health troubles affecting Indigenous Australians.

“We have had strong representative bodies come and go, while people in our community suffered,” she said.

“It is Australia’s shame that there is Aboriginal children with rheumatic fever, it is Australia’s shame that the is lead in water at Yarrabah, it is Australia’s shame that Indigenous people are dying of their 50s of heart failure and renal disease and that so many of our children are illiterate when they leave school.”

“I work with the Aboriginal Family Legal Service Queensland and we make meaningful and positive changes for the families we work with but like every community organisation we have to go cap-in-hand, begging for money.

“I would remind people that you can carry the Constitution in your pockets, it is not a document that has a lot of detail.

“The details are explained in the legislation.”

For more coverage of Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s event visit: thechronicle.com.au