The Voice to Parliament will help Australia's First Nations People

The Voice to Parliament will help Australia's First Nations People.

I and many others attended the Voice to Parliament information night in Kooyong to learn more about why it is so important. 

Bart Willoughby, A Pitjantjatjara man of the Mirning dreaming played didgeridoo and acknowledged the Wurundjeri people to open the event . 

The speakers were: 

Dr Monique Ryan, independent MP for Kooyong

Thomas Mayo, Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man. 

Marcus Stewart, Nira illim bulluk man of the Taungurung Nation

You can watch the event here:

Some key points were made by the speakers.

Thomas Mayo:  "The Voice will provide recognition to and consultation with First Nations people. Have conversations with your family and friends about this."

Many decades of struggle, heartbreak and hard work have led up to the Voice. The Voice is logical, its strategic for closing the gap, and its key for hearing indigenous people.  The dialogues that led to the Voice considered lessons learnt. 

Voices have been established many times before. Anytime they made the parliament uncomfortable they have been silenced. Petitions and statements have been ignored. A treaty was promised by Bob Hawke, but its failed to date.

Howard destroyed ATSIC. Governments have failed. The NT Intervention then happened.

The Voice To Parliament can advise the Australian government to take action on black deaths in custody and closing the gap.

Consensus was reached on Uluru Statement give it great power, dialogues across Australia were heard in safe places. The outcome was Voice, Treaty, Truth.  The priority now is the Voice.

Australia is one of the very few like nations that don't have a Treaty or constitutional recognition of indigenous peoples.

Without a Voice, First Nations People go backwards.

The Voice To Parliament can provide advice to the parliament about any future attempts to suspend the Racial Discrimination Act (as Howard did during the racist NT Intervention).

The Voice to Parliament must be in the Constitution to stop future governments destroying it when they don't like what they hear and don't want to listen.

Its up to the Parliament to determine how the Voice will function and how it will be formed.  This may change over time as lessons are learned - this detail must NOT be in the Constitution as then it cannot be altered when needed. 

Marcus Stewart: "the Voice (now) is essential for getting to Treaty, which could take 20+ years."

Sovereignty has not been ceded and will never be ceded. 

We are We are a strong people, but in this nation we don't have a political agency to make decisions that affect our lives. We watch other people decide whether our rights are respected and our voices heard.

Voice, Treaty and Truth will benefit the soul of this nation.

We are all lucky to walk on Aboriginal Land.  We came to this place through different paths. 

We have a once in a generation opportunity ahead of us at referendum.

What is on offer is over 60,000 years of history and culture, wisdom and knowledge, traditions and celebrations, strength and resilience, something we can all celebrate.

We will lose nothing but stand to gain so much. We love our culture and want to share it and have it respected and everyone able to celebrate it. All we ask in return is for the freedom and power to make decisions that impact our communities, our culture and our lands.

We want the freedom to choose our own paths in life. For too long Aboriginal people have had policies made to us, for us, but never by us. 

Every aspects of our lives have been controlled by policies ... made by politicians who didn't understand us and didn't respect us.

Having a Voice is the first step in having a meaningful say in the decisions that affect our lives. Its not about assigning blame or guilt. 

The alternative is waking up to a country post referendum that told our people and our communities that we don't belong and that our voice should be silent.

I urge everyone to not let the perfect get in the way of the good. Don't let the search for detail leave us without a seat at the table.

A Yes Vote is confirmation that you want all First Nations communities to thrive again, for our unique connection to this place to be recognised, respected and celebrated. 

Opponents

The Liberal, National and One Nation parties all oppose the Voice to Parliament. Their reasons are unclear. There is no logic, evidence or  facts supporting their positions. They are telling lies about the Voice.

Their political tactic is to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt to kill the Voice. They tried this during the unnecessary marriage plebiscite but it didn't work.

It also appears there is some racism behind this, which is very disappointing.

Some answers to questions

I can't understand how we would be able to progress Treaty without a Voice.  One risk that a Treaty might be signed then torn up by government.

A good agreement never comes before you form a representative body. We have federal government. Its really important to setup a national body.

Treaty will take decades and will be an ongoing struggle, so a national body is going to be so important to ensure outcomes are achieved.

We can work towards a Treaty and have a Voice, work can proceed in tandem.

The Voice is just recognition and consultation. Have conversations with friends and colleagues about the Voice. 

The Voice will be one mechanism to improve lives of First Nations People, better policies will result.

The Voice has an advisory to it can be ignored by government, but it would a brave government to do that.  Parliament will remains responsible for making decisions.  They should listen to what we have to say.

The Voice will not have a power of veto.

The parliament and the government will seek advice from First Nations people. For example, the lifting of alcohol bans. 

Local, regional and national layers of representation will represent all groups across Australia.

The Voice will represent the community it serves. Out people will have a democratic say in who their representative are.

Why I will vote Yes

I will vote yes to the Voice To Parliament referendum. I respect the Uluru Statement and the wishes of First Nations people.

Australia's First Nation's people deserve to have a voice to parliament and government about policies and legislation that affect them.

Solicitor-general Stephen Donaghue advice on the Voice

On 21 April 2023 the government’s top lawyer stated the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament would "enhance" Australia's system of government, and does not believe it would "pose any threat" to the nation's parliamentary democracy.

• Voice to Parliament would be an 'enhancement' to constitution, according to solicitor-general - ABC News 

Links

• The Uluru Statement
• Referendum on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice - referendum question and constitutional amendment.
• Voice to Parliament referendum question and constitutional amendment announced - ABC News
• Voice to Parliament: Debunking 10 myths and misconceptions – Monash Lens

Swiss referendums in 2009 make for healthy democracy and some action on climate change

In Switzerland, they are holding referendums right now. These have been mostly initiated by citizens.

Two are federal, 6 are canton level, and in Geneva there are two commune ones, bringing the total to ten.

One Canton referendum caught my attention. The proposal is to offer rebates to people who buy new cars with better than 120 g CO2/km, no effect on those in the range 120 to 250, and an extra levy to those that produce greater than 250.

How refreshing it would be to vote for a referendum such as this - that has potential to provide real incentives for people to reduce their carbon emissions.

Currently in Australia, such a referendum is impossible. For healthy democracy I think we need the ability to hold referendums like this now.

So we need a referendum to change the Australian Constitution to make citizen-initiated referendums possible.

Some photos of billboards for the referendums

EV in London

Tony Abbott, the Game of Thrones and why party politics is failing

Its interesting to watch the decline of Tony Abbott as Prime Minister.  I was concerned when he became Prime Minister that he would not be a good leader.  My worst fears have since been realised.

Tony Abbott: Source

The list of broken promises and bad policies gets longer almost every day, here are just a few:

• Funding cuts to ABC and SBS (a broken promise and appalling "efficiency levy lie)
• "Loggers are the ultimate conservationists" and "no more national parks" (appalling lie)
• "Coal is good for humanity" (appalling lie)
• Deregulation of university fees - that could result in $100,000 degrees (no policy for this during the 2013 election campaign)
• Continued incarceration of asylum seekers (including children) in concentration camps and offshore processing centres - a clears breach of human rights and the UN Convention for Refugees. (Note this is also supported by the Labor opposition)
• Encouraging Islamaphobia is making Australia less safe, rather than considering the causes of radicalisation of the minority who join the likes of ISIS, and how we can prevent this happening.
• Lifters and Leaners: vilification of low income earners and protection of corporate tax evaders
• A budget emergency that actually did not exist, but is now being created by the failed LNP budget and policies.
• Ongoing denial of climate change accompanied by policies that are crippling our transition to renewable energy and a zero carbon future.
• The proposed GP Copayment - research indicated that this will have a negative effect on health care outcomes and greatly disadvantage low income earners.

All these policies have a common thread - they are based on ideology rather than evidence.

However, for all this I don't just blame Tony Abbott.  

We have serious systemic problems with political parties, where their policies come from, how their leaders are elected, and the basic failure of representational democracy.

Political parties actually only represent their own traditional support bases:

• Liberal - medium to high income earners, "the big end of town" corporates, media barons etc. Notional "conservatives".
• Labor - "working families", unions (some but not all), Notional "progressives" etc
• Greens - conservationists, some unions, progressives disillusioned with Labor and the Coalition
• Nationals - the notional "rural vote"

The average citizen has next to zero input into party policies.  Many actual party members (a small fraction of voters) also have little or no input to party policies.

Party policies come from secretive processes that are largely controlled by internal and vested interests.

The basic failure of representational democracy is twofold:

1. Yet we vote for our local Members of Parliament, who are supposed to represent us. In reality, they vote the way their party instructs them most of the time.
2. Parties have policy platforms during an election that are not binding - promises are routinely broken once government and policies that were not part of their election platform are forced onto society.

Our Prime Ministers are selected by internal party processes such as Party Room votes.  There is never any public participation with this - MPs decided when to sack a sitting Prime Minister and appoint a new one.

Recently, this has been chaotic.

The Labor Party sacked Kevin Rudd due to internal problems they had with his autocratic leadership style.

The Labor Party then sacked Julia Gillard and reappointed Kevin Rudd because nervous Labor MPs thought she couldn't win the 2013 election - which Rudd went on to lose.

Malcolm Turnbull was deposed as Coalition Opposition Leader in 2009 by the Liberal Party room, many of whom were concerned by his bipartisan support for an emissions trading scheme.  Tony Abbott won by one vote and went to become Prime Minister.

Now in 2015, it is evident to the wider electorate that Tony Abbott is manifestly unsuitable for the role of Prime Minister, so nervous back benchers (scared of losing their seats) bring on a "vote of no confidence" in him, which is defeated (61 votes for him, 39 against) with no alternative candidate. 

Since then, Abbott has continued to prove himself incapable of governing the country, he is locked into "attack mode" where he insists he well "beat Bill Shorten" and he continues to bully and threaten anyone who doesn't agree with him such as Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs.

It now seems likely that the Coalition Party Room will vote again on who will be Prime Minister (if someone challenges) and that Tony Abbott is considered likely to now lose.

So these are some big problems.  

Here are some possible structural solutions:

Constitutional change: Form governments based on the skills of elected MPs rather than party allegiances and membership

Constitutional change: Ban binding party votes - make every vote a conscience vote

Constitutional change: Provide voters with the opportunity to directly elect political leaders (e.g Prime Minister, Head of State) and move to some form of Republic

Legislative change: Ban large political donations - these fundamentally corrupt politics as they buy influence and large media driven election campaigns.

Constitutional change: Citizen initiated referendums and issue/policy referendums - give voters the opportunity to vote on binding policy matters that governments must then implement.

If we don't reinvigorate our democracy will continue to be subjected to the whims and vagaries of a largely autocratic political elite that don't act in the best interests of the nation and all citizens.