Recognition and closing the gap are lost in the Voice debate

In the next 130 years many initiatives were undertaken for arguably the welfare of our Indigenous people.

Then there was the 1967 historic referendum with only non-Indigenous people voting. It was a resounding success - more than 90 per cent voted YES, to include Indigenous Australians in the Census and unite the whole of Australia.

Between the 1967 Referendum and 2008 Apology, without going into details, various measures have been taken by governments of all persuasions, aimed at closing the gap and improving the lives of Indigenous Australians.

This whole body of work was done by successive governments, including the 2010 Constitutional Recognition process consultation, resulting in the self-ceasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Recognition Act 2013, without there being any constitutional body like the proposed Voice.

The Act had a Preamble saying the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were the first inhabitants of Australia.

Recognition of Indigenous people in Australian constitution is long overdue and should have happened many decades ago.

But the 2017 Uluru Statement manoeuvred the call for recognition into a requirement of constitutional body – the Voice, parallel to the full-fledged advisory frameworks we already have and working to help improve the fortunes of our Indigenous people, running programs to close the gap.

It is on public record that the proposed Voice will work with, and NOT replace, (not even a part of) the existing frameworks, thus adding another layer of bureaucracy and its ongoing permanent cost to the taxpayer.

Current structures advocating for our Indigenous people:

Indigenous politicians
We have had Indigenous politicians adorning the parliament in Canberra since 1971, within 4 years of recognising them as Australians.

We have 11 Indigenous members in the current parliament of Australia.

Overall, since 1967, there have been (including the current members) not less than 97 successful politicians which includes 8 members who have claimed Indigenous heritage but are not ordinarily known as Aboriginal politicians.