Jasper Meredith

Students in VCE English prepare and present their opinion on a current issue in the media to meet the outcomes of Unit 4. In doing so, our VCE English teachers were fortunate to hear and experience the passion and hope that our students are soon venturing into the world with. It inspires confidence to hear them advocate for society’s vulnerable, to seek to protect our environment, and to enact political change with their voices. 

YOUR VOICE GIVES THEM VOICE

Australia is one country, many people, multiple cultures. It is this that makes us great. But, our history, our parentage, our very birth as a modern nation is the result of two cultures; the British and the Aboriginal. Yet the Australian constitution, our guarantee of freedom, only recognises one of these cultures; the British. With the upcoming referendum, we all have the opportunity to SAY YES. YES, to becoming whole. YES to the Aboriginal voice. 

For 179 years the Indigenous peoples of Australia were not even recognised as part of the Australian population. The Indigenous population were considered less than human, but still used for fodder in OUR wars. It was the 1967 referendum that finally allowed the constitution to be changed to allow the inclusion of the Aboriginal people as a part of the Australian population. At last, the Aboriginal people were included in the national census; allowing resources such as healthcare, education, housing etc, to be allocated to meet the needs of ALL Australians. The overwhelming vote to include Indigenous peoples as Australians, was made possible by over 90% of the Australian population, who voted YES. By people who understood that to continue to ignore the traditional inhabitants was a cruelty and injustice that could no longer be tolerated.

Fifty-six years later, we….us…YOU…. Now have the same opportunity to make right what is wrong. Make just, what is unfair. We…us…YOU… have the opportunity to again, SAY… YES. Both of Australia’s origin cultures MUST be recognised in Australia’s document of freedom and law; our constitution. YES. Both cultures deserve to be heard. Both are of equal merit. Both are who we are. 

To those that object by arguing that “allowing one group to be recognised constitutionally will only encourage other groups, such as immigrants, to expect constitutional inclusion”; I say two things.

1. To offer this argument ignores the core reason for constitutional Aboriginal inclusion. The Aboriginal people are indigenous to this land and are not included in the constitution, though their ownership and culture has shaped Australia, along with British colonization. 

And,

1. “So what?” What is the harm in ensuring that everyone is heard? (And by the way, immigrants ARE included in our constitution under provision 51, the races power).

The right to be HEARD is ALL this referendum, the Aboriginal people, are asking for. Not the right to change laws, governments or appropriate funds. Not the right to power or to be unelected members of parliament. Not the right to interfere with democracy. Just the right to be heard.

So why enshrine this in the constitution? Why not just make a law giving the Aboriginal people a voice? The answer is simple. Because a law can be changed or overturned. In short, successive governments could take away the Aboriginal voice, as has been done before with AT SIC  (the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission). In 1990 the Hawke Labor government lawfully formed AT SIC.  Indigenous peoples were formally involved in creating government policy to further the economic, social and cultural development affecting their people. In other words, indigenous Australians had the right to be heard by the Federal Government. The right to be included. Finally, there was a sense of progress from the government. To actually recognize these people, who has spent their lives, and the life times before them, unheard and discarded.

However, fifteen years later under the Howard Liberal Government, AT SIC  was disbanded. With a stroke of the pen, the indigenous voice was silenced and deaf ears no longer heard the indigenous needs. Instead, the British power, enshrined in our constitution, once again dominated and decided what was best for the Aboriginal people.

The result of this catastrophe has been:  over 30 billion dollars per year wasted on Aboriginal spending, (compared to the annual 1.1 billion dollars for AT SIC). The Aboriginal mortality rate is four times higher than non-Aboriginal Australians of the same age. Approximately twenty-five Aboriginals die in custody each year. Indigenous Australians have lower educational outcomes. Higher rates for addiction. Sub-standard living conditions and of course, the result is the violence, that we have all seen on the news. This is the consequence of a people in pain. A people unheard.

This referendum asks us… asks YOU the people, the voters of OUR nation… to give the Aboriginal people back their right to be heard. They will decide how they want to be heard, how they choose to use their voice. Whether it be by sending elders or by electing individuals to speak with the Federal Government; a YES vote enshrines the Aboriginal people’s right to be heard on issues that affect them. The right to express their wants, needs, and possible solutions, should governments decide to listen. But the ONE thing that the Federal government will not be able to decide ever again; is to SILENCE the Aboriginal voice. Because ‘we the people’ have spoken.   

As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said, “It is so little. They are asking for so little”. It is such a small thing to ask for the chance to be heard. The Aboriginal people could be asking for power, or guarantees that their voice brings about change. But they are not. They are simply asking for the guaranteed right to speak and be heard. 

It is us… me… and YOU… that will make this possible. Search for the fairness of your heart, the north of your conscience and give the Aboriginal people what we take for granted every day; what is enshrined in the constitution for us. Don’t waste your ‘YES’ on a ‘No’, or on a non-vote, or a donkey vote, by thinking that this change doesn’t go far enough. It doesn’t. But we walk by taking steps, not by jumping! Just as the ‘67 referendum made this step possible, so this referendum will make greater things possible. A ‘No’ vote only ensures that it will be another fifty-six years until we get closer to equality. Your ‘YES’ vote will ensure that both mother and father, the Aboriginal and the British are included in our constitution. Your ‘YES’ vote ensures that Australia is the inclusive, big hearted, fair country we like to think it is.

Do what is right. 

Vote ‘YES’ for the voice. 

Because it is YOUR voice that gives THEM voice.

And their voice is OUR voice.