Voice to Parliament

This is proposed as a new representative body that sits alongside the Federal Parliament which is then obliged to listen to what Indigenous people have to say about the laws under consideration in parliament that affect them.  This proposal flowed from The Uluru Statement from the Heart. It aims essentially to enshrine in the Australian Constitution a First Nations presence in the government of the country so that the views of the First Nations people can be heard, and Indigenous communities can be empowered to take much greater control of their own future. 

 At the moment Indigenous communities have little say over what remote politicians and bureaucrats decide is good for them, and there have been a number of project failures as a result. There have been many attempts to alter this way of doing business with no result. It needs intervention at a much higher level of government to bring about change. There is an enquiry on what an Indigenous voice to government might be. There are calls for an Indigenous voice or a First Nations voice.