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Christine Grayden

11/9/2023

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Our parliamentary institutions have always hopelessly failed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The argument that we already have parliamentary representatives including First Nations politicians is not going to work if they are somehow tied to a party. They will always toe the party’s line, just as Broadbent is now doing. The Voice is the only opportunity First Nations people have been given to actually get their own message across to the federal parliament.
The key words in the question we are being asked to vote on are “…recognise the First Peoples of Australia”.

It’s those words in the question that I’ve detected most people who will be voting No actually seem to have a problem with. They clearly think if our constitution actually acknowledges there were and are First Peoples here, that it will somehow open floodgates to land rights claims that will threaten their personal legal ownership of property. Or the value of their shares, because surely, the stock market will crash if there is a Yes vote!
 
The fact is that the current system is not Closing many Gaps or healing our environmental woes. Listening to a real First Nations Voice is what’s needed to get there.   
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