General Discussions

[Thryleon]

I heard an Aboriginal bloke on the wireless today who gave a very good reason why an Indigenous voice to Parliament would be a good thing.

Basically, he said that, as a taxpayer, he was unhappy about the money that is spent on programs for Indigenous folk and doesn’t produce the intended/desired outcomes.  He felt that having an Indigenous voice to Parliament would mean that Government funding for Indigenous programs would be better targeted and produce better outcomes.  That would be a win-win.

The first time I voted in a Commonwealth election, I voted for Neville Bonner who became the first ever Indigenous person in Parliament.  However, Senator Bonner and the Indigenous people in the current Parliament are there to represent their electorates, not just Indigenous people (who would make up a small percentage of the voters in most electorates).

I don’t know the mechanics of the Indigenous voice, no-one does at this stage, but I am familiar with The Uluru Statement from the Heart.  It’s advocating constitutional change to improve representation of Indigenous Australians to the Commonwealth Government.  Victoria already has such an arrangement in place and South Australia is establishing its Indigenous representative body.  The sky hasn’t fallen in Victoria and I suspect that it won’t in South Australia … or the Commonwealth.

Thank you.  This is the sort of answer I was looking for.

The one thing I want to add, is anyone ever happy with how the government uses money?

If this leads to less wasted money that's a good thing, but my suspicion is that there will be frequent demand for more to be spent on indigenous people (which is generally the status quo at federal level).

I think Macca37 raises an interesting point with respect to how the mechanics of the indigenous voice will work with the different communities, language and effectively nations that exist in Australia.  I do know that a government institution in Victoria, hired the wrong person from an indigenous background to serve as indigenous liasion in a health care service, and that person was from Queensland with the result that it did more harm than good for the people in that Victorian community and resulted in them being disengaged.