After many months of bitter debate about the Voice, an address to the National Press Club this week reminds us that we are back at a point where it seems that, no matter what the truth may be, we will not let it lead to any change, writes Laura Tingle.
I think that’s a bit disingenuous because if you look at the page you link there’s a lot more detail than just the excerpt you provided, including at the very top that they are voted upon by the people of the states. It has provisions for different cases as well.
The voice proposed change has none of this detail.
I would like to see some accountability included in the proposed change and I think that’s why a lot of people are skeptical. The way it is now still leaves a lot of room for political sabotage at any future point as long as there is a “body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice” that exists. There is nothing in the amendment that even specifies who makes up this body, how many people, how they get chosen, term lengths, etc. These details are at least considered in our current constitution for senators.
It’s not that any of this would make me vote no. I do support this type of cause and I’m glad that steps are being made. It’s just that, as far as I can tell, there’s no constitutional protection that would stop, say, PwC from being assigned the role of “the Voice”.
Sorry, I was trying to focus specifically on the means by which they are elected. Not trying to mislead, I think there’s parallel because like the voice just says it has to be a body and not how it’s made up and senate elections more or less just say “you have to have them, figure out how”.
So there’s a lot of leeway in the constitution in general, like to my knowledge there’s nothing stopping senate electing laws being like a 2 hour window in the state capital except that if a government tried to do that presumably they’d be challenged on either going against the intention of the constitution, established practiced, or worse case there would be revolts. There’s a few risks to making something too specific, what if things change and you need to like have another referendum to say hire a new person?
It certainly is vulnerable to say appointing the board of PwC as the voice, except of course that’s the status quo now (inasmuch as advisory bodies on indigenous affairs go) although nobody could argue that the government was going against the spirit of the constitution doing so. So this can really only be thought of as massively strengthening the situation we have now.
If we look at how divisive even this change is, you can imagine the sort of polemic criticism a more prescriptive change might apply. If the voice fails to be satisfactory and vulnerable to being hijacked then we can always go to referendum again, we wouldn’t be worse off than we are now. Legislation is a lot more flexible, which is a weakness and a strength but in general keeping systems flexible helps us fix things and keep them relevant as times and goals change. If the people want this, then the people have an interest in it working correctly after all.
Excellent points. Thank you for putting in the time to discuss this with me. You, and others here have been invaluable to me. It’s too hard to find quality information like these replies through searching. I’m the kind of person that likes to understand things in an extra level of detail so when I discuss things with people I can know what I’m talking about. Knowing only the bullet points makes it hard to back up opinions when talking to people of differing opinions.
You are welcome.