With the Voice to Parliament Referendum date announced to be October 14 2023, this thread will run in the lead up to the date for general discussions/queries regarding the Voice to Parliament.
The Proposed Constitutional Amendment
Chapter IX Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
129 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice
In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:
there shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice; the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; the Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.
Past Discussions
Here are some previous posts in this community regarding the referendum:
- The Voice referendum official Yes/No pamphlets
- Linda Burney says there is everything to gain and nothing to lose by supporting the Voice
- Families distressed after ‘highly misleading’ video used by anti-Voice campaigners goes viral
- The Indigenous Voice to Parliament – separating fact from fiction | 7.30
- 10 questions about the Voice to Parliament - answered by the experts
- The yes pamphlet: campaign’s voice to parliament referendum essay – annotated and factchecked
- Fact-checking for the “No” referendum pamphlet was not compulsory
Common Misinformation
- “The Uluru Statement from the Heart is 26 Pages not 1” - not true
Government Information
- Referendum question and constitutional amendment
- voice.gov.au - General information about the Voice
Amendments to this post
If you would like to see some other articles or posts linked here please let me know and I’ll try to add it as soon as possible.
- Added the proposed constitutional amendment (31/08/2023)
- Added Common Misinformation section (01/07/2023)
Discussion / Rules
Please follow the rules in the sidebar and for aussie.zone in general. Anything deemed to be misinformation or with malicious intent will be removed at moderators’ discretion. This is a safe space to discuss your opinion on the voice or ask general questions.
Please continue posting news articles as separate posts but consider adding a link to this post to encourage discussion.
If you’re a white person you really shouldn’t be trying to represent the views of Indigenous Australians. I don’t care how you’re voting, we all need to reflect on and consider whose voices we’re trying to represent here.
So white people also shouldn’t be saying that “80%” of indigenous people support the voice either?
I would argue that’s different because these people are citing polling information not trying to represent Indigenous voices. By design, quantitative data does not represent qualitative data. If they were trying to represent qualitative experiences, then yes absolutely this applies. It’s important that we all reflect on our positions in this debate, especially if we are claiming to represent the perspectives of Indigenous Australians.
When I say lots of indigenous people don’t support the voice I’m also quoting polling data because even if you believe that 80% poll, 20% is a significant number. Even 10% is a significant number and qualifies as “lots”.
Statistically this argument makes no sense. I’m a qualitative researcher myself so i would agree that the qualitative experiences of those 20% are important, but quantitatively they are not. Regardless, the argument still stands, we need to critically reflect on our positions within this debate. You can vote however you want, but if you are advocating for your opinion on the basis that you know what Indigenous Australians want then well frankly that’s not a great position for a non-indigenous person to occupy.
I’m not and never have advocated for that.
Also 20% is quantitively a big percentage.