Less than 4 weeks until Australians vote in referendum
In three and a half weeks, Australians will decide whether or not to enshrine an Indigenous voice to parliament in the constitution. In the lead-up to the vote, we're putting your questions to the experts and key players in this referendum.
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TVTranscript
00:00 Putting it in a constitution is saying it's fundamentally important.
00:05 The important things go in a constitution.
00:08 Parliament, the High Court.
00:10 It's saying that the voice is immensely important.
00:13 And the other thing it's doing is it's saying it can't be removed without another referendum.
00:18 So it's both about symbolism, but it's about permanence.
00:23 Will the parliament be able to limit what the voice can make representations on?
00:28 Yes, you've got a series of words in the provision itself.
00:33 Basically, parliament can deal with the composition, powers and procedures of the voice.
00:40 Now when you put those together, you would expect that those words would be enough for
00:45 parliament to define things about the scope of the voice.
00:50 For example, I think it would be possible for parliament to set priorities to the voice.
00:57 So I think Minister Birney was suggesting that today, so that health and education and
01:04 incarceration could be put forward as the things the voice would be making representations
01:09 on.
01:10 Is it possible there will be legal intervention if advice is rejected or it's accepted but
01:15 not acted upon?
01:18 I don't think there could be any legal intervention on advice not being accepted.
01:24 I don't think that's the sort of thing that any court will get involved in.
01:28 There might be some early legal thumping around on the question of what happens if parliament
01:36 doesn't wait for the voice to express itself or acts without any representation for voice.
01:45 Truth is, I think the High Court would be very, very wary of getting between the government
01:52 and the voice, so I certainly don't think there's ever going to be a question of the
01:58 government having its action overruled because it disagrees with the voice.
02:03 Will the parliament have the power to increase or reduce what the voice can do?
02:09 Yes, because it has the power to regulate its powers and its procedures and its composition.
02:16 Again, I think it's not so much going to be a question of trying to exclude what the voice
02:22 does.
02:23 It's probably going to be a question of structuring what the voice does.
02:27 I think most people want the voice to get into those terribly important pragmatic issues
02:33 on the ground, questions of illness and disadvantage and failure of education.
02:40 I would expect that if the voice suddenly wanted to talk about national defense or spend
02:47 its time talking about the United Nations, that parliament would step in to make sure
02:53 it was thoroughly focused on practical matters.
02:56 Viewers have asked several questions about the design of the voice, of this advisory
03:01 group - how many people will be on it, how they'll be chosen, will remote communities
03:04 be represented.
03:06 Are these all considerations for the government of the day if the Yes campaign succeeds and
03:10 not the constitution?
03:12 They are, and the government will legislate on it.
03:15 You might say it would have been preferable if the government had got out some idea before
03:20 because, as you say, people worry.
03:23 Having said that, if you actually look at what the Prime Minister and Minister Burney
03:28 have said over the past few weeks, it's pretty straightforward getting an idea of what it
03:33 is.
03:34 It's going to be a body chosen from local bodies, elected or appointed, doesn't really
03:40 matter.
03:42 It's not going to be a big body.
03:44 It's not going to have a large budget.
03:45 It's not going to be directive.
03:47 It's going to be an advisory committee.
03:49 Clearly, as I say, there are going to be priorities given to it.
03:53 When you draw between all of those dots, I think you can get a fairly clear idea of what's
03:58 being proposed.
04:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]