Thomas Mayo and Kerry O’Brien
Hardie Grant. RRP $16.99
The publisher’s media release for this short (85 page) but informative handbook says this:
“(This book) will be a clear and simple guide for millions of Australians who have expressed support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart, but who want to better understand what a Voice to Parliament actually means. And in the face of calls for more ‘detail’, the book will cover all relevant discussions, including the history of the struggle for an effective Voice, what is a referendum, what is the Uluru Statement and other frequently asked questions.”
Over the past months there certainly have been many calls for more detail. Some of those calls, particularly from some agenda driven politicians, have been quite disingenuous and clearly designed to muddy the waters. No amount of information or detail will satisfy them, but for the vast majority of Australians of good faith, this book will be an essential tool as they decide how to vote if the referendum later this year.
Kerry O’Brien probably needs no introduction, being an acclaimed and trusted journalist who spent many decades at the ABC working on such programs as This Day Tonight, Four Corners and Lateline. He has been awarded six Walkley awards for excellence in journalism.
Indigenous leader Thomas Mayo is a Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man. He is a signatory to the Uluru Statement from the Heart and has been a leading advocate for its implementation since 2017.
The book begins by setting out the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and then explains how the Statement was created, who was involved, and how a consensus was finally reached as to the wording of the Statement.
Mayo and O’Brien then explain what the Voice means to them personally and why it should be passed.
Mayo says:
“The Voice is a wonderful consensus position, informed by history, experience and sound, logical sense.”
And:
“It is a choice between improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, through the simple act of asking the Parliament to listen, or choosing to accept more of the same.”
O’Brien explains that the Uluru Statement is a request for three things, being:
Constitutional recognition with a Voice to the Australian Parliament and the Executive Government, Truth telling, and Agreement-making.
He says:
“Australia has nothing to lose and a great deal to gain by voting ‘Yes’ in the Voice referendum. One key reason why Indigenous policy has failed so fundamentally at times is because it has been written and implemented from Canberra by non-Indigenous politicians and bureaucrats without listening to the people they’re supposed to be helping.”
Chapter 2 outlines the history of the struggle for an effective Voice, explaining that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples had no role to play in the drafting of the Australian Constitution and were often sidelined by governments in relation to matters affecting them and that it’s been “the slow, painful dance of two steps forward and one step back with no policy advance set in stone.” This all helps to explain why the Voice needs to be in the Constitution:
“With its continuity guaranteed in the Constitution, the Voice would be able to mature and evolve as an effective part of the ongoing drive to close the gap on the inequities built into Australian society over 235 years.”
Chapter 4 of the Handbook asks, “What is a referendum?” We are told that the only way to change the Australian Constitution is by the holding of a referendum and that for there to be a change the majority of voters must vote ‘Yes’, but also that there must be a majority of ‘Yes’ votes in a majority of states:
“In other words, more than 50 percent of voters in four of the six states have to vote ‘Yes’, as well as the nation as a whole.”
Chapter 5 is titled “Why vote ‘Yes’ and other frequently asked questions”. It deals with such issues as whether it would amount to a third chamber of Parliament. It certainly will not. It will only be able to make representations and advise on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It will not manage money or deliver services. It will have no power of veto over government decisions.
One question which is commonly asked is why all of the detail about how the Voice will work will not be in the Constitution. That is simply not how the Constitution operates:
“For example, the Constitution grants the Commonwealth the power to impose taxes and laws regarding the collection and administration of taxes, but it does not detail how the Taxation Commissioner is selected, where the tax office will be based, or how much will be spent on tax collection efforts.”
There are many other such examples that the authors could have given as are contained in section 51 of the Constitution and which any interested reader can readily access online.
If the referendum is passed it will then be up to the people’s representatives in the Parliament to decide on all the detail.
The authors never shy away from facing up to the difficult questions which people have been asking.
Some of the other questions raised and answered are:
Is it safe to amend the Constitution?
Are the possibility of High Court challenges a real problem?
Won’t the Voice just add another layer of bureaucracy?
Don’t Indigenous people already have a voice with the right to vote?
Why are some Indigenous people not supporting the Voice?
Why not just spend the money dedicated to establishing the Voice on Aboriginal communities?
And quite a few more.
Chapter 6 looks at the issue of how the Voice can help to close the gap in a number of specific areas, and the final chapter then explains how the reader who wants the referendum to succeed can help by having conversations or by actively joining the ‘Yes” campaign.
This is a very thoughtful, readable, and easy to understand Handbook which deserves widespread use in the months remaining before Australians are required to vote on this crucial issue. It does indeed provide “all the detail you need.”
I highly recommend it.
John Watts