The federal member representing the seat named after two of Australia’s most respected First Nations leaders says he can’t support a Voice to Parliament for Traditional Owners.
Sam Birrell was elected earlier this year to represent Nicholls, which includes Shepparton and is named after Sir Doug Nicholls and his wife, Lady Gladys Nicholls.
Sir Doug was a Yorta Yorta, Baraparapa, Dja Dja Wurrung, Jupagalk and Wergaia man and Lady Gladys a Baraparapa and Dja Dja Wurrung woman.
Both were born at Cummeragunja Mission near Moama and became known for their work advancing the rights of the disadvantaged and First Nations people.
Sir Doug was the first Traditional Owner to be knighted and was also governor of South Australia.
Mr Birrell’s party, the Nationals, announced on Monday, November 29 that it would not support the proposed Voice to Parliament for Australia’s First Nations people.
Under the proposal, a referendum would be put to Australians during Labor’s first term of government, asking that the Constitution be changed to include the Voice, a body of First Nations representatives, and requiring it to be consulted over laws that impact Traditional Owners.
Nationals leader David Littleproud said his party could not support the proposal because it would not close the gap, or reduce disadvantage for Traditional Owners.
From the Heart, the campaign behind the Voice proposal, disputes that claim, saying it is only logical that if First Nations people are consulted over laws impacting their lives that those laws will bring better results.
“When Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, who know and understand the best way to deliver real and practical change in their communities, have a say through a Voice, we will finally be able to close the gap that still exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. This is why it is so important,” it said.
Mr Birrell said he could not support the Voice because of a lack of detail in the proposal.
“I don’t think the community is being given enough detail on what the Voice looks like, who is appointed, how it’s structured, and I think for something as important as changing the Constitution, I think we need to see some more detail,” he said.
“I’m happy to see some more detail as the government puts it out and I’ll consider that as we go along the process, but I’m concerned that that detail is not going to come out and that is a concerning thing when you’re talking about changing the Constitution.”
Mr Birrell also questioned the need for a Voice, given the number of Traditional Owners who have been elected to Federal Parliament.
“There’s another argument that’s being made up here (in Parliament) that says that 11 Indigenous MPs have been democratically elected to represent people up in this place, and that’s a fantastic thing for Australian democracy, for reconciliation, that we move forward with that and that’s the way parliamentary democracy works,” Mr Birrell said.
He has also thrown his support behind the Kaiela Institute’s Goulburn Murray Regional Prosperity Plan, which aims “to generate mutual prosperity by restoring and sustaining a thriving and sustainable First Nations economy” across the Goulburn-Murray region.
“The prosperity plan has a chance of closing the gap because it’s place-based and it’s got some detail around it,” Mr Birrell said.
“That’s why I support it. It’s hard to say the Voice will close the gap when we don’t know what the Voice is, so that’s where I’m at at this particular point in time.”
The Prosperity Plan, however, “aligns with and supports the principles for change and reform currently being undertaken at both the Federal and state level”, including the Voice to Parliament.
Co-chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria and Bangerang and Wiradjuri woman Aunty Geraldine Atkinson said she was disappointed that one of Mr Birrell’s first acts since being elected in May was to undermine the campaign for a Voice.
“Of course more details about the Voice need to be discussed, but that’s what the conversation is all about and the conversation is just starting, so that’s why it’s very disappointing to see the Nationals turn their backs and walk away from it,” she said.
“How can you hear the details if you’re not even willing to listen?
Aunty Geraldine’s co-chair at the Assembly is Marcus Stewart, a Nira illim bulluk man of the Taungurung Nation, some of which lies in the Nicholls electorate.
He said the key to improving the lives of First Nations people was “ensuring we can make the decisions that affect” them.
“If the Nationals want to help improve the lives of Aboriginal people, they should be listening to us and getting behind our calls for things like Treaty and Voice and Truth-telling,” he said.
“Having our say is very hard when we don’t have a meaningful voice of our own.”
Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said he was hopeful of being able to convince the Nationals to support the Voice referendum.
“I appreciate the people who are wanting to oppose the Voice to Parliament going into the Constitution are using that clamour for detail as one of the reasons for opposition, but we are right at the start of this referendum,“ he said.
“We are proceeding methodically, as this government does, by consulting deeply with a reference group of Indigenous leaders, with a wider group of Indigenous people who are providing advice on how the referendum campaign should be structured, and we've got a constitutional experts group advising as well.
“Those are the early steps in getting this referendum campaign going and it's far too early for people to be saying, as the Nationals regrettably did yesterday, and it is disappointing that they're going to oppose it before they've even really thought about.”