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Submissions: Your Feedback

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

The views expressed in these submissions belong to their authors. The National Indigenous Australians Agency reserved the right not to publish submissions, or parts of submissions, that include, for example, material that is offensive, racist, potentially defamatory, personal information, is a copy of previously provided materials, or does not relate to the consultation process.

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Submission Number
54
Participant
Julie Ann Foreman
Submission date

As a mere third generation Australian I accept the generous invitation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to accept the Uluru Statement from the Heart’s invitation to “walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future”.
I do not feel that this will dimmish my white heritage in any way. I believe it will make us a better nation.
I would love for our nation to achieve a successful referendum to enshrine an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament in the Constitution.
I welcome the government’s Interim Co-Design Report and acknowledge the significant work undertaken by the three co-design committees, led by co-chairs Professor Marcia Langton AM and Professor Tom Calma AO. It was an arduous task to bring the vast historic body of work and the complexities of current practice together into a comprehensive report, especially during a global pandemic. We understand that co-design means the current proposals are not complete and that it is critical that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people contribute their experience and ideas into this consultation process.
My submission is intended to be a constructive contribution to this important work.
My submission is that:
1. The government must honour its election commitment to a referendum once the model for the Voice has been settled;
2. Enabling legislation for the Voice must be passed after a referendum has been held in the next term of Parliament; and
3. The membership model for the National Voice must ensure previously unheard Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have the same chance of being selected as established leadership figures.
The co-design process was established to respond to the recommendations of the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (JSC). The JSC itself was established to consider the recommendations of four previous processes that examined options for the constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including the Uluru Statement and the Referendum Council.
The co-design process was focused on the legislative design component. The Interim report means that legislative design has now entered the public consultation phase.
The second component arising from the JSC is constitutional enshrinement. The words of constitutional amendment need to be developed for submission to the Australian people at a referendum. This process must now begin.
Following this co-design process, it is imperative that we turn our minds to the constitutional and legislative arrangements to enact the Voice in a deliberate process. The legislative design of the Voice cannot be decoupled from its constitutional enshrinement.
A Voice enshrined in the Constitution is a fair, practical and safe proposal that will unify our nation. I am pleased to make our submission in response to this Interim Voice Co-Design Report.

 

 

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