DEAR News Of The Area,

I WAS initially in favour of the Uluru Statement.

Then I did some research and changed my view.

The proposal for ‘The Voice’ to comprise 34 “representatives” is flawed, and it cannot work for the benefit of Aboriginals at grassroots levels for several reasons.

I know one of the co-authors of a map of Australia showing 300 Aboriginal tribes.

Therefore, in any Voice forum, I favour having 300 representatives.

If the United Nations, with 193 members, would comprise only 34 representatives, how could you have one covering (say) Fiji, Tonga and Australia?

Aboriginals cannot vote to elect any of the 34 persons on the Voice!

The government’s proposal (as per Prof Marcia Langdon) is that the government would appoint 34 representatives.

In any case, before you could have voting by Aboriginals to provide their inputs into these 34 people, the huge problems of an Electoral Roll of Aboriginals would need to be addressed, with the tribe of each person listed, and with the controversial culling out of ‘fake Aboriginals’.

Due to the negligence of the Australian Electoral Commission, the NT Electoral Commissioner complained about the shambles of the Electoral Roll, especially in remote areas.

And on 22/11/2022 the Mayor of the West Arnhem Regional Council said that the Roll is so bad that“the franchise for Aboriginal residents of remote communities is inhibited.”

I am aware of the problem of “fake Aboriginals” because in an SBS program Suzanne Ingram of the NSW Aboriginal Housing Office complained that over one-third of people claiming to be Aboriginals were not, and Aboriginal Dr Stephen Hogan said “fake Aboriginals are white people controlling the narrative of black affairs.”

Michael Mansell, Chairman of the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania, warned of 1000s more fakes.

In order to improve the situation for Aboriginals, any government worth its salt does not need to amend the Constitution.

And we don’t need this Voice, which would be another centralised Canberra bureaucracy.

Instead, we need listening ears among politicians to the already many organisations handling Aboriginal issues:
· The “Coalition of Peaks”, comprising 80 Aboriginal organisations, began in October 2018

· 30 Aboriginal Land Councils

· 2,700 Aboriginal corporations

· The National Indigenous Australians Agency, with 1,340 staff and a budget of $4,500 million began on 1/7/2019.

Regards,
Lex STEWART,
Stuarts Point.