UnSubRocky wrote on May 23^rd, 2023 at 9:37pm:


Yes.  Have you, Unsub?   

Brian Ross wrote on May 23^rd, 2023 at 9:42pm:


About two years ago, I talked to an Aboriginal woman (who had just got out of prison). She voluntarily made statements about "paying the rent", and that it was no shame against my "mob" about what happens in her life. She was a little upset about the murder of some mother up north, and the fact that I did not know about it.

To answer your question, yes, implicitly I have talked to indigenous people about the voice to parliament. They are not bothered by the issue.

How about your side of the argument, Brian? What did your indigenous people tell you?

UnSubRocky wrote on May 24^th, 2023 at 1:19am:


It varies amongst Indigenous people just as it does amongst most other people, Unsub.  The politically charged are very interested, the politically naive are not.  I last spoke to an indigenous student amongst my wife's tute at University about a fortnight ago.  Her view varied towards the naive view.

thegreatdivide wrote on May 24^th, 2023 at 4:42pm:


And that's exactly correct.

You saying otherwise is outright bullshyte.

John Smith wrote on May 24^th, 2023 at 6:00pm:



Whose arse would that be Guido?

You jealous?

And you're being a hypocrite again.

Puckerupucface

The voice referendum is a shot coon...

.... and yet what this poor fellow - my country - needs more than anything else is people who can rise from the floor of society and win election on the merit of their platform of a fair go for all...

The longer the platforms of the government of two parties acting in lockstep go on, this becomes less likely, since they both agree on flooding the country with clueless immigrants who will instantly, once citizens, vote against any such sensible move as stopping immigration for 2-5 years until the country is back on its feet and actually has a plan for its future outside of building ticky-tacky shacks on the hillsides to crowd more and more people into until they collapse or the cities drown in their own excrement .......

Then there is the constant drive to divide all Australians into smaller and smaller groups, and pit them against one another (starting with the women v men debacle - jeez - even that sheila who torpedoed Rolf Harris STILL insists they are victims of the patriarchy and are viewed by many men as merely good for 'pregnant, barefoot and in the kitchen' - what a load of utter cock as they say in the transgender community - and she says THEY are out of touch with the times), and promoting the silly grievances of minorities over the real interests of the majority and of the country as a whole (as opposed to the hole it is becoming) so as to create a country divided against itself along all lines and thus with a populace easy to conquer and control.....

Danger lurks on every side when your country is run by lunatics....... and none have the balls to call it treason......

I told yez all that AbbotCo would be a watershed in politics in this country - and that AlboCorp would be another watershed in politics in this country... one such prediction is a done deal... the other is developing like a huge cancer as we speak...... and Albo is quite mad and thinks he is sane.... as are all his followers and those who hold his balls in a rabbit trap and force him to obey their wishes.... the pussy whippers.... all victims, too.... just ask them..... FFS ......

[quote]ALBO’S VOICE WILL TAKE AWAY ABORIGINAL PEOPLE’S
VOICES
WARRENMUNDINE
Anne Summers, former head of the Office for the Status of Women, is a big fan of Prime Minister Anthony
Albanese.
Summers is also a supporter of his proposed indigenous Voice to parliament. Recently she tweeted: “So it’s OK
for me as an individual to make representations to the executive (the PM and cabinet ministers) in support of a
better deal for single mothers, but it’s somehow a problem for First Nations people to speak to the executive to
advocate for better conditions. Really!”
People on the Left use “fact checking” to undermine political opponents but often have no problems
themselves with fact-free claims. Summers’s tweet is full of them.
Let’s start with the most obvious one. Summers says Aboriginal people aren’t able to do the things she’s able
to do as a citizen of this country. She is able to make representations to the PM and ministers as an individual
but First Nations people are not.
Really? No.
Every Australian can make representations to politicians, as individuals and through groups and organisations.
Aboriginal people can and do make representations to the PM and ministers. Aboriginal organisations and
people are in fact embedded in government decisions at all levels, both as advisers and in designing policy.
One of the most senior Aboriginal bodies currently advising the federal government is the Coalition of the
Peaks, a representative body of over 80 indigenous “peak organisations”.
Members of the Coalition of the Peaks include the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health
Organisation (the peak body for Aboriginal medical and health services), and the National Native Title Council
(the peak body for the various native title service corporations that represent native title claimants).
Member organisations of the Coalition of the Peaks have themselves been speaking to and lobbying
governments for decades and long before it was established. When I held roles advising prime ministers, I’d
speak to these organisations all the time. Even when I was Deputy Mayor of Dubbo City Council, delegates of
peak bodies would regularly meet with me.
The Coalition of the Peaks was established in 2018 as a conduit to a formal partnership with the then Coalition
government on changes to the Closing the Gap strategy. The programs and policies currently administered by
the National Indigenous Australians Agency were substantially designed and written by the Coalition of the
Peaks. It has done much more than make representations.
A few weeks ago while in Canberra for budget week, I attended many functions and meetings and saw many
Aboriginal people walking through the hallways of parliament, coming in and out of meetings with all sides of
politics, including the PM and cabinet ministers whom Anne Summers falsely claims are off limits to
Aboriginal people. It’s not a “problem” for First Nations people to speak to the executive. It’s a daily
occurrence.
It’s actually rare for politicians to refuse to meet Aboriginal organisations or delegations who want to speak to
them. I can only think of one instance. It happened a few months ago when Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price
and myself escorted a delegation of about 20 Aboriginal people, some who had travelled from remote Northern
Territory, who came to Canberra to speak to parliamentarians about why they oppose the Voice.
They met with members of Coalition, including the Opposition Leader, and several cross benchers. But Labor
parliamentarians, including Prime Minister Albanese and Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney,
refused to meet them.
Maybe Summers could write to Albanese and Burney to complain that these Aboriginal people couldn’t make
representations to the PM and cabinet ministers like she can.
Summers’ tweet contained other misinformation.
The executive is more than just the PM and cabinet ministers. It includes every department, public servant, independent statutory office and agency. Professor Megan Davis of the Constitutional Expert Group for the Voice has mentioned Centrelink, the Great Barrier Marine Park Authority, the Ombudsman and the Reserve Bank as examples of agencies the Voice will have a right to make representations to. The Office of Women is another.

Summers’ tweet is telling in another way. She sees herself as an individual with an individual’s right to tell government what she thinks. She sees Aboriginal people as a homogenous group needing a single national homogenous body to speak to government.

But we, too, are individuals. We can choose to organise ourselves in groups for particular purposes, as can anyone.

Albanese’s Voice, however, will force us to be represented by one body with constitutional primacy.

And the Voice isn’t just going to be an advisory body, but a vast, expensive new bureaucracy to interface at every level of government via arbitrary regions that bear no resemblance to Australia’s First Nations.

It will actually dilute traditional owner voices for their own countries.

In its submission to the Voice Co-Design Group, Ngaanytatjarra Council warned this model could “effectively nullify authentic indigenous voices, rendering them meaningless”.

The idea Aboriginal people don’t currently have a voice is a lie. The Voice will take away our voices.

Nyunggai Warren Mundine AO is Director, indigenous Forum, at the Centre for Independent Studies