1 SUBMISSION TO THE JOINT SELECT COMMITTEE ON CONSTITUTIONAL RECOGNITION RELATING TO ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLE About the SEARCH Foundation The SEARCH Foundation is a membership-based, not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. The SEARCH Foundation contributes to efforts to develop a new collective and strategic set of values and ideas and a new collective political practice for a 21st Century alternative to capitalism. The SEARCH Foundation bases this vision on the best of the socialist tradition and the struggles for workers’ rights and human rights, the lessons of the modern women’s liberation movements, the historic anti-racist struggles of our times, and the profound insights of the movements for ecological sustainability. Our submission The SEARCH Foundation makes this submission in support of the Uluru Statement from the Heart by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for a constitutionally- enshrined Voice to Parliament as the sole, meaningful form of constitutional recognition. This historic consensus emerged from the comprehensive regional dialogues that engaged Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples across the nation. Unless a Voice to Parliament is the subject of a referendum to entrench a First Nations Voice in the Constitution, rather than being legislated, it will always be vulnerable to repeal by a subsequent government. A referendum is necessary to test the support of the Australian community for Indigenous Australians to have a meaningful say in their affairs. Evidence suggests that there is significant support across the community for a Voice to Parliament enshrined in our constitution. Detailed design of the Voice led by First Nations The First Nations Voice is described by the Referendum Council as a representative body able to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ perspectives are considered whenever Parliament makes laws under section 51(xxvi) and section 122 of the Constitution. There is no truth in the assertion that such a representative body would be a third chamber of the Australian Parliament. The proposal is for the constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament to be legislated by Parliament. Parliamentary supremacy is preserved. It is not a proposal for a right to veto. 1 2 Meaningful consultation The SEARCH Foundation supports the committee’s call, in its interim report, for a process of deep consultations between the Australian Government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in every community across the country, in order to ensure that the detail of The Voice and related proposals are authentic for each community across Australia. The Referendum Council has demonstrated through the consultation process adopted to produce the Uluru Statement, that this deep, grassroots consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait people is the most effective way to achieve agreement across the great diversity of Indigenous society. This regional dialogue process should be the model on which these consultations are designed. Any such proposal for consultations must be fully funded by the government and led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Such grassroots consultation has proven effective in other contexts in giving members of unions, some political parties and progressive community organisations a voice in the design of policies and models for service delivery. For example, wide membership consultation has resulted in women, Indigenous peoples, people from CALD backgrounds, disabled and LGBTI union members gaining improved representation in union structures and decision-making bodies. This approach is most likely to result in ownership of solutions by those with the greatest stake in the outcome. A more unified and reconciled Australia Enshrining a Voice to Parliament in the constitution will contribute to a more unified and reconciled Australia. The 1967 Referendum to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the census was carried with overwhelming support. There are non-Indigenous Australians born since then who find it unbelievable that there was ever a time when Indigenous people were not included. A Voice to Parliament will contribute to important recommendations of the Referendum Council (2017), the Uluru Statement (2017), the JSC on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People (2015), and the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians (2012). It will facilitate the acceptance by all Australians of our shared history, allow for the much needed truth-telling about that history, and ultimately pave the way for treaties between First Nation peoples and the Australian Government. Accord with the wishes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people The proposal for deep consultations is consistent with several of the guiding principles that emerged from the regional dialogues, which informed decision-making at the Uluru Convention. The principles stated that any reform proposal, of which the Voice to Parliament is one, should only proceed if it: 2 3 Advances self-determination and the standards established under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Recognises the status and rights of First Nations Does not waste the opportunity of reform A statement of recognition or acknowledgement in the Constitution was rejected by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples participating in the Referendum Council Dialogues and Uluru. All Dialogues asserted the fact that Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples never ceded their sovereignty. For this reason, delegates were not persuaded of the benefit of acknowledgement inside the Constitution. Examination of current consultation methods The JSC’s Interim Report lists the many current structures and procedures currently in place for governments to consult with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and some indicative proposals for a First Nations voice. The SEARCH Foundation strongly supports the proposed deep consultation on these options but believes additional proposals generated through the consultation process should also be given serious consideration. Many of the existing structures have not served First Nations people well and have generally failed to deliver equality of outcomes, economically, socially or politically. Support by the majority of Australians Following the Garma Festival in 2017, Mr Thomas Mayor, Torres Strait Advocate for the Uluru statement from the Heart, toured Australia with the Uluru Statement canvas, speaking at gatherings, meetings and conferences of Indigenous and non- Indigenous Australians. Mr Mayor reported in his submission that, “additional canvas’ have travelled with me so that Australians who have seen the Uluru Statement with their own eyes can add their names to the document. There are now around 12 large canvas’ with thousands of signatures.” An online poll conducted by Omnipoll in August 2017 for researchers at Griffith University and the University of New South Wales, found that 60.7% of respondents broadly supported a proposal to “change the constitution to set up a representative Indigenous body to advise the parliament on laws and policies affecting Indigenous people.” Of the 1,526 respondents, 24.1% broadly supported the proposal, 36.6% said they tended to support the proposal, while 16.9% said they tended to oppose the proposal and 13.5% were strongly opposed. Conclusion For the reasons outlined above, the SEARCH Foundation strongly supports the Uluru Statement from the Heart by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for a constitutionally-enshrined Voice to Parliament as the sole, meaningful form of constitutional recognition. 3 4 The SEARCH Foundation also supports the committee’s call, in its interim report, for a process of deep consultations between the Australian Government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in every community across the country, in order to ensure that the detail of The Voice and related proposals are authentic for each community across Australia. Jacquie Widin President Luke Whitington Executive Officer SEARCH Foundation 02 9698 4918 Suite 8, Level 5, Trades Hall 377-383 Sussex St Sydney NSW 2000 www.search.org.au 4.