With the Voice to Parliament Referendum date announced to be October 14 2023, this thread will run in the lead up to the date for general discussions/queries regarding the Voice to Parliament.

The Proposed Constitutional Amendment

Chapter IX Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

129 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice

In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:

there shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice; the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; the Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.

Past Discussions

Here are some previous posts in this community regarding the referendum:

Common Misinformation

  • “The Uluru Statement from the Heart is 26 Pages not 1” - not true

Government Information

Amendments to this post

If you would like to see some other articles or posts linked here please let me know and I’ll try to add it as soon as possible.

  1. Added the proposed constitutional amendment (31/08/2023)
  2. Added Common Misinformation section (01/07/2023)

Discussion / Rules

Please follow the rules in the sidebar and for aussie.zone in general. Anything deemed to be misinformation or with malicious intent will be removed at moderators’ discretion. This is a safe space to discuss your opinion on the voice or ask general questions.

Please continue posting news articles as separate posts but consider adding a link to this post to encourage discussion.

  • Whirlybird@aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    The idea that the voice is some sort of useless idea is seriously flawed.

    That’s your opinion. It’s not mine or plenty of other peoples, including lots of indigenous people.

    this is merely saying that within the framework of Australia as a country, that Aboriginals deserve access to our legislature and executive on matters that affect them.

    Yeah, they just don’t actually get any power over it. Gee aren’t we nice for giving them the ability to say “hey nah we don’t like this” before we say “tough shit, we’re doing it” and there’s nothing they can do.

    I would hope that on the first point, its been made clear that there is real benefit to having a Voice

    It hasn’t, no matter how many times you want to say it has.

    Id encourage those who would like to learn to listen to ideas from the referendum working group and those associated with the yes campaign on rough ideas of a Voice if this is the case

    I don’t care about “rough ideas”, I care about knowing the actual details of the things I’m being asked to put in our constitution. Why on earth should I vote to add something to it that we have no idea what it will look like, but we know that it can just change at the whim of the current party in power?

    All of these questions take significant time. If you can focus on the amendment, and whether support those ideas outside of what a future voice may look like, it will help.

    Then they should have taken that time before asking us to vote on it. This didn’t need to be rushed through. Any issues of timelines are caused by the people pushing for the referendum, thinking they can just bully everyone into voting yes by calling them racists, when all we want is to actually have details on what the voice will look like and what it can do. The referendum should not have been pushed without these details, and it would likely be a dramatically different result if we had what we are asking for but being told we can’t have unless we vote yes.

    • Ilandar@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      including lots of indigenous people.

      Who? All polling suggests an overwhelming majority (>80%+ Yes, <15% No) of Indigenous Australians support the Voice. Provide some evidence or stop making this baseless claim. And no, more boring anecdotes about your “Indigenous friends” is not sufficient evidence.

      Any issues of timelines are caused by the people pushing for the referendum, thinking they can just bully everyone into voting yes by calling them racists

      It wouldn’t be a Whirlybird comment without some more crying about hurt feelings. Are you ever going to grow up and get a real argument? Maybe provide some evidence to back up anything you say? Or is this really the best you’ve got? Just another completely irrelevant sob story about how some imaginary Yes campaigner was mean to you online.

      Never mind the actual hard, documented evidence of racism within the No campaign - the real problem (according to you) is that once upon a time a mythical Yes campaigner misidentified your ignorance as racism and you found that so incredibly offensive and life altering that you now feel the need to remind us of it in every single comment. Get over it already.

      • Whirlybird@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        All polling suggests

        Ah yes, the infamous “over 80% support it” based on a poll of 700 indigenous people 😂.

        I’m assuming you’re the same person that said I had “hurt feelings” like this last time? My feelings aren’t hurt at all, though I have to wonder about yours considering how upset you seem to be getting. I’m stating facts - a big part of the yes supporters tactics are just say that anyone who doesn’t vote yes is racist. I’m sure you’ve done it plenty of times already, since you just did it to me 😂

        The way you’re just making stuff up to try and attack me is exactly what I’m saying. You just try and bully people into your beliefs. Like I said, when you do that you shouldn’t expect people to side with you, but to turn even more against you. That’s how it has worked all throughout history.

          • Whirlybird@aussie.zone
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            1 year ago

            What claim? What deflection?

            You’re just calling me racist and claiming my feelings are hurt, literally proving my point.

                • ⸻ Ban DHMO 🇦🇺 ⸻@aussie.zoneOP
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                  1 year ago

                  What you’re saying implies the existence of some sort of majority. Something which you have argued a lot. Some polling shows that around 80% of Indigenous Australians support the voice, last time I checked around 20% is a minority

                  • Whirlybird@aussie.zone
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                    1 year ago

                    Is 20% not “lots”? If 20% of our population died would you not say a lot of people died?

                • Ilandar@aussie.zone
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                  1 year ago

                  You claimed “lots of Indigenous people” think the Voice is a useless idea. Where is your evidence?

                  • Whirlybird@aussie.zone
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                    1 year ago

                    Yeah, and I’m shocked you’re actually asking for a source on that because that’s ridiculous.

                    The source you’re quoting was a poll of 700 indigenous people 😂

                • Nonameuser678@aussie.zone
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                  1 year ago

                  If you’re a white person you really shouldn’t be trying to represent the views of Indigenous Australians. I don’t care how you’re voting, we all need to reflect on and consider whose voices we’re trying to represent here.

                  • Whirlybird@aussie.zone
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                    1 year ago

                    So white people also shouldn’t be saying that “80%” of indigenous people support the voice either?