16/09/2023
In response to Ross Taylor’s letter regarding the Indigenous Advisory Council, Warren Mundine and the Voice to Parliament, can I make the following observations?
Warren Mundine was the Inaugural Chairman of the IAC when Tony Abbott was the Prime Minister. He was removed from that position and the Council largely defunded in 2017 by Malcolm Turnbull. The Council is barely in existence anymore and Warren Mundine, as we know, has found his relevance elsewhere.
It is precisely this seesawing of funding and existence that is the reason why we need to entrench this advisory body in the constitution. At the present time and for the last 235 years these bodies have lasted the duration of the government in power and have been replaced by the incoming new party. By not having it in the Constitution, these undulations of survival mean that there is little or no capacity to have any long term or long lasting impact “in community”.
Finally addressing Mr Taylor’s point in regard to having these types of bodies as a Voice to Government makes this Voice to Parliament unnecessary. A voice to Government is quite a different beast to a voice to a house of parliament where there are members of ALL parties present and able to address and implement and influence policy. This ensures commitment to ownership of recommendations made by the Voice.
Suresh Rajan
