We would not regard as legitimate a contract whose risks had not been disclosed; for the same reasons, a constitutional amendment whose consequences had not been made apparent could hardly claim democratic legitimacy.
The greatest risk is that the voice will move us further from – rather than closer to – reconciliation.
Our experience with similar bodies since 1973 is telling. At Thursday’s press conference, Indigenous academic Marcia Langton claimed there was “no evidence” to show those bodies had not worked. However, the historical record flatly contradicts her assertion.
Our experience with similar bodies since 1973 is telling. At Thursday’s press conference, Indigenous academic Marcia Langton claimed there was “no evidence” to show those bodies had not worked. However, the historical record flatly contradicts her assertion.
Thus, as Jeremy Beckett, a scholar who could hardly be accused of being a reactionary, concluded, the Whitlam government’s National Aboriginal Consultative Committee, which was the first representative national body elected by Aboriginal people, “was scarcely a success, failing to work with government”.
Instead of facilitating consultation, “the requirement to make decisions merely brought pre-existing differences into the open and created occasions for new ones”.
The Fraser government’s replacement version, the National Aboriginal Conference, was “scarcely more successful”, becoming ever more extreme before the Hawke government, exasperated by its unending histrionics, abolished it in 1985.
As for its successor, the scandal-ridden ATSIC, it is too often forgotten that well before the Howard government disbanded it in 2005, Patrick Dodson and Labor loudly urged its abolition.
Those disappointing outcomes, which exactly mirror experience in countries that range from Finland to Chile, are no accident. The fundamental feature of indigenous assemblies is that they concentrate on one aspect of identity – race – in which we differ, elevating that feature above the many things we share.By removing the common ground, their design has invariably fostered an “us versus them” mentality that fuels escalating polarisation.
Henry Ergas
Forum
Pages: 
The question about a voice will be asked... (Read 55131 times)
