South Australia Goes It Alone to Embed Indigenous ‘Voice’ Into Its Parliament

Premier of South Australia Peter Malinauskas at a press conference during a visit to Cabra Dominican College in Adelaide, Australia, on May 20, 2022. Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

South Australia (SA) will forge ahead with its own Indigenous Voice to Parliament, legislated through the SA Parliament, in a move that will likely add a major layer of red tape to government decision-making.

The announcement by the SA Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas comes as his federal counterparts look set to push forward a national referendum on whether to embed the advisory body for Indigenous affairs into the Australian Constitution.

Malinauskas said he took his policy to the recent state election.

“We made it clear that we were committed to the full ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart,’ and we have been consulting with the community broadly, both Indigenous communities and non-Indigenous communities, and we have arrived at a model to put it into the Parliament,” he told Today on Feb. 7.

Protesters take part in an "Invasion Day" demonstration on Australia Day in Sydney on January 26, 2022. Photo by Steven Saphore / AFP

He called it a “reasonable” initiative, saying it was a “whole-heartedly good thing to do, not just for Indigenous affairs but as a whole.”

The premier said the policy would be designed to suit South Australia.

“But the principles remain the same around a Voice to Parliament which advances the cause of Indigenous Australians in our state,” he said.

According to details obtained by The Australian newspaper, the proposal will cost local taxpayers around $10 million (US$6.89 million) and entails electing 46 delegates to sit on seven local and one statewide “Voice” bodies.

Only voters with an Aboriginal background will be allowed to vote for their representative and will need to declare their heritage with the state’s electoral commission.

Delegates will also have the power to address SA’s House of Assembly (lower house) and Legislative Council (upper house) on any bill they deem to have an interest in.

Details of how the $10 million will be spent were not outlined in the 36-page draft bill.

SA Drumming Up Support for Federal Voice

The proposal from SA comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese continues to push for public support for The Voice.

In a speech on Feb. 5, Albanese cited the Jan. 6 Capitol riots in Washington D.C. as one reason why voters should support changes to the Constitution.

The prime minister claimed such a “sensible” change would protect Australia’s democracy against “poisonous conspiracy theories.”

Albanese also alluded to the controversy around the 2020 U.S. presidential election result, as well as the more recent Brazilian uprisings, saying “we must also heed the warning they carry.”

In a salvo aimed at critics of the Labor government’s proposal, the prime minister said there were people pushing “misinformation on social media” about The Voice.

“Drumming up outrage, trying to start a culture war. That’s an inevitable consequence of trying to achieve change,” he told the Chifley Research Centre at the National Press Club.

Questions remain, however, over what powers the body will have.

For example, can it veto legislation? Could it hold up bills already passed by the existing houses of Parliament? Who would decide who sits on the new advisory body? And why does it need to be enshrined into the Constitution instead of just legislated via Parliament?

Despite the initiative being aimed at dealing with Aboriginal disadvantage, it has been criticised by members of the community.

Former national president of the Australian Labor Party and Indigenous leader, Warren Mundine, said there were many questions about how The Voice would resolve on-the-ground issues like youth violence in the central Australian town of Alice Springs, which has garnered national headlines in recent weeks.

“Why is it so important to change? What is the benefit of it? Is it going to stop situations like Alice Springs? Because Alice Springs is just the tip of the iceberg, and the government can’t even respond to that,” he told The Epoch Times.

“No one knows what The Voice is, and they haven’t been able to explain why it is going to make Aboriginal lives better. How’s it going to resolve all the plethora of problems that Aboriginal communities deal with?” he said.