Submission to Indigenous Voice Co-Design Process Interim Report for the Australian Government
• I am an Anglo-celtic non-Indigenous senior Australian and have two grand-children with indigenous
heritage.
• I thank the Team which has worked for a year to produce a remarkably detailed document of alternative
models of the operation of a Voice to Parliament. This work puts ‘meat on the bones’ of how a First
Nations Advisory Voice to Parliament would work in practice and it paves the way for the government to
confidently take the case for constitutional enshrinement of a Voice to the people in a Referendum.
• I am not in a position to make informed technical observations on the ‘shape’ of the Voice, other than to
say it must ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people whose voices have previously not been
heard have the same chance of being selected as established leadership people.
• Once the nature of the Voice is agreed upon, the Government must honour its pre 2018 election
commitment to hold a referendum in the next term of Parliament. I believe it is essential that an Indigenous
Advisory Body to parliament be embedded in the constitution before being legislated by government. Our
country has a history littered with government abolished or otherwise unsupported Indigenous advisory
bodies. Constitutional enshrinement allows the Australian people to make a choice and will
provide certainty, longevity and empowerment for our First Nations on the road to authentic reconciliation
between Australia’s First Nations and its non-Indigenous citizens.
• I am glad to add my voice to the many in support of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and for an
Indigenous Voice to Parliament to be enshrined in the Australian Constitution.
Kind regards
Randall Pearce
