1962

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Submissions: Your Feedback

Submissions from people and organisations who have agreed to have their feedback published are provided below.

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Submission Number
1962
Participant
Daniel Berg
Submission date

Daniel Berg
Lismore, NSW, 2480

Dear Co-Design Body

Submission for Co-design process

I am a white Australian citizen since 1990 and came here from the UK where I was born in 1945. I have worked in many roles in Australia from office worker to baker to radio host. Most recently I was employed by Lifeline as a telephone support worker, working very unsocial hours.

Why do you think the Uluru Statement from the Heart is important?
I think the Uluru Statement from the Heart is an extraordinarily generous and genuinely heartfelt declaration which is intrinsically remarkable and for ever historic. It is incredibly crass of the government to treat it with anything less than the utmost respect and consideration.

Why is it important for Indigenous people to have a say in the matters that affect them?
The current living conditions of a majority of indigenous Australians are unjustifiably deprived, unresourced and disempowering. This is entirely the result of the British invasion and colonisation, which led to individual, community, and generational trauma from the genocidal and ecocidal actions of settlers of all kinds. The damage to a previously existing society was incalculable. Actions taken by governements since have tended to deceive and disarm potential First Nations leadership and guidance. The Uluru Statement is an honest and very carefully considered fresh attempt to at last begin to remedy the situation in cooperation with current governance.

How could a Voice to Parliament improve the lives of your community?
I am quite sure that the inclusion of the Voice in the Constition will result eventually in better living conditions for the local First Nations community, and that this will improve contact and connection with the larger community, to the overall benefit of all.

Why do you think it's important to enshrine the Voice to Parliament in the Constitution, rather than include it only in legislation?
The Voice to Parliament must be enshrined in the Constitution for the obvious sake of permanence and removal from the possibility of eradication by another government's future legislation.

Thank you,
Daniel Berg