By Callum Ludwig
Labor Senator for Victoria Linda White is voting Yes in The Voice referendum on 14 October and hopes Casey constituents do too.
Ms White has been in communication with the over 170 volunteers of the Casey for Yes group and was a member of the initial Joint Select Committee on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice Referendum.
Ms White said the most significant reason for her decision was the length of time The Voice has been called for.
“The Uluru Statement from the Heart was the culmination of probably 20 years of requests to have constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians and the large number of Indigenous people who made this request,” she said.
“Other things have not worked, having Indigenous bodies in legislation, which can be easily abolished, has just not worked because the bodies themselves might have but were just taken out by successive governments. That points to me that you need something strong so it can continue.”
The Committee made up of seven Labor, three Liberal and one Nationals, Greens and Independent representatives, passed the alteration that formed The Voice referendum unamended. The Committee formed the view that the Bill is ‘constitutionally sound’ and meets the request of the Uluru Statement From the Heart.
When asked which Indigenous representatives, elders, leaders, groups or services she has consulted, Ms White said she has certainly relied on the consultation that’s happened at a national level.
“I work with some great Indigenous members of Parliament and have had a lot of discussions with them, and I was also very fortunate to be on the select committee that considered the legislation that formed the question,” she said.
“I had a great opportunity to see not only constitutional experts, but also leading advocates like Noel Pearson and Megan Davis, who came to the committee and spoke about both what they thought it would do for the community, but also legally how they thought it would sound.”
Ms White and her team have also helped the Casey for Yes campaigners in setting up forums, making phone callouts and running street stalls throughout the electorate.
When asked if she thinks The Voice would hold politicians and future governments to account on decisions and policies pertaining to Indigenous Australians, Ms White said the constitutional recognition will do that.
“It will give The Voice a permanency and significant legitimacy in the community,I think that we will want frank and fearless advice from the members of The Voice to Parliament and I think that the fact that it can’t be abolished by a successive government will mean the quality of the advice and the feel of the advice should be greater,” she said.
“We’ll put our hope on a pathway to closing the gap and improving the lives of the Indigenous members of our community and if it’s successful, then there will be a select committee formed so that there can be proper consultation on how it will work, how the members will be selected and then will be off and running.”
When raised concerns about the capacity of The Voice to make representations to the government, the Committee was reassured by the advice of the following constitutional experts that there was little to no basis for those concerns: former Chief Justice of the High Court Robert French, former High Court Justice Kenneth Hayne, Professor Anne Twomey, Professor George Williams AO and Mr Bret Walker KC, the Solicitor-General of the Commonwealth.
Ms White said education, employment and health are the key things she hopes to consult The Voice on if successful.
“Those are the areas where there’s a significant gap between Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous Australians; life expectancy is significantly less for Indigenous Australians and those are sort of issues that need to be tackled head-on,”
“Employment and education is about making sure that the opportunities available to Indigenous Australians are equal to those of the rest of us.”
The Committee also accepted advice provided by legal experts and the Solicitor-General that government operations will not be slowed down by The Voice and that it wouldn’t create a ‘legal quagmire’ that overruns the court with cases.
Ms White said she just doesn’t agree with the No campaign slogan ‘If you don’t know, vote No’.
“If you don’t know, find out about it, there are plenty of people who have got information and there is a lot of information online,” she said.
“What we’ve been doing so far has not worked, in life, you don’t keep doing things that don’t work, you change it up and you try something different and this has been asked of us by Indigenous people so we should be listening to what they’ve asked us.”
The proposed amendment to the Constitution, section 129(iii), states that Parliament will hold the power to make laws that dictate how The Voice will function, including The Voice’s ‘composition, functions, powers and procedures.’
The Committee noted that this feature will ensure the Voice’s operation can be updated to align with ‘changing circumstances’ and that Parliament and Australians through the representation of their Federal Members ‘can assist to shape the Voice’s impact.’
An online Casey for Yes meeting was disrupted by a number of individuals making racist remarks about Indigenous Australians while wearing masks and showcasing swastikas in the background on August 3, which was reported to Ms White.
Ms White said the best debates are those where everybody respects the views of each side.
“Resorting to violence or intimidation is just not the way to behave, you’ve got to listen to what people say and respect what they say,” she said.
“If you want to try and change people’s minds, you’ve got to do that in a civil and intelligent way by mounting arguments, it isn’t done by trying to intimidate people and scare people into your point of view,”
“I think what happened in the online meeting was just a bad thing because it just didn’t resort to intelligent discussion, it was just about intimidation and I don’t think there’s any place in this discussion for that.”
Anyone wishing to view the proposed section regarding The Voice that would be added to the Constitution can find it at: www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2023B00060.
For the full advisory report from The Committee on The Voice, you can read more at: www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Former_Committees/Aboriginal_and_Torres_Strait_Islander_Voice_Referendum/VoiceReferendum/Report.
