Opinion: To close the chasm leaving First Australians behind, hear our Voice
Woe and behold, imagine you are an Indigenous person observing the annual Closing the Gap speech. Before you is a rich, powerful man who does not fall under the constitution's race power as you do. Rather, he wields his power with the Parliament he stands in. He stands to speak, telling you how much he desires to do different next year — how he will listen. But you’ve heard it before. He has failed, and you fear he will fail again. Believe me, it doesn’t feel good.
I am a signatory of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. I can tell you, he has only heard what he wants to hear. Indigenous people don’t want an act of Parliament to merely legislate the Voice. From the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association in the 1920s through to the First Peoples Congress more recently, the fate of Indigenous political organisations has always been the same. Hostile governments will destroy any Indigenous Voice that has ever spoken up with any power or authority.
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