Voice to Parliament
Black Peoples Union Statement on the Voice to Parliament
The Black Peoples Union is firmly opposed to the proposal for a Voice to Parliament. The BPU maintains the position that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples retain full sovereignty over the land and waters of this continent and that the Australian government is an illegitimate occupation.
The Voice to Parliament has been touted as a progressive step forward for Indigenous rights in Australia, however the proposal does not address and is a distraction from the fundamental and significant issue of sovereignty. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have never ceded sovereignty to the Australian government. The history of colonisation in Australia is a history of theft and exploitation of Indigenous lands, resources and labour. Since the arrival of the British in 1788, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been dispossessed of our lands and resources. The process of colonisation involved violently displacing us from our lands, stealing our labour, the destruction of our cultures and knowledge systems, and the imposition of non-Indigenous laws and systems of governance. This process of colonisation continues today, we continue to be dispossessed and have our sovereignty and self-determination undermined by the Australian government daily.
The Voice to Parliament will not address this ongoing process of colonisation and dispossession. Instead, it creates the illusion of progress while allowing the Australian government to continue its theft and exploitation of our lands and resources. By establishing an advisory body to provide Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with a voice in the parliament, the proposal gives the appearance of Indigenous inclusion and representation in the government. However, this representation is superficial and does not address the root causes of our oppression nor the fundamental issue of our sovereignty. Instead, it reinforces the idea that the Australian government and Australian people have the ultimate say over Indigenous affairs. In essence, the Voice proposal is a form of assimilation that seeks to assimilate Indigenous peoples into the Australian political system. It does not recognize the unique cultural, social, and political systems of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and instead seeks to make us conform to non-Indigenous norms. In effect, it is a form of tokenism that seeks to placate Indigenous peoples without addressing any of the issues that our people actually face. It does not provide a pathway for Indigenous self-determination and instead reinforces our dependency on the Australian government.
The BPU believes that a Voice to Parliament will undermine the sovereignty and self-determination of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. By creating an advisory body that is appointed by the government, the Voice will be yet another way for the government to co-opt Indigenous leadership and decision-making to distract from and undermine the real issue of sovereignty, which would give us greater control over our lives and destinies. We believe that the proposal is structurally inadequate. It does not give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples the power to make decisions that affect our lives. The Voice is an advisory body, which means that it can only make recommendations to the government. It will not have enforcement power. This means that the proposal will not give us the power to make decisions that affect our lives. It does not guarantee a meaningful role for us in decision-making processes and does not provide a clear process for how the government would engage with the advisory body, nor does it provide any guarantees that the government would take the Voice's recommendations seriously. Further to this, there is nothing in Australian political history to suggest that the government would listen to any of its recommendations.
This is not the first advisory body of its kind and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been giving the government recommendations for decades. The proposal will not address the ongoing violence and trauma inflicted on our people by the Australian government and society, it will not stop our people being murdered, locked up or forced onto the streets, it will not challenge the structures of power and inequality that perpetuate our oppression in the colony, just like none of the other advisory bodies have stopped these things. The only thing that will stop the ongoing colonial violence is the full enforcement of our sovereignty. Indigenous peoples in Australia have long called for the return of stolen lands and resources as a necessary step towards decolonization and self-determination but the government is unwilling to listen. The return of lands and resources would be a concrete step towards the restoration of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. But the proposal does not address the need for the return of stolen lands and resources. Instead, it reinforces the status quo of our dispossession and dependency on the Australian government. By offering us token representation in the government, the Voice seeks to placate Indigenous activism and resistance and channel our revolutionary energy into electoral and parliamentary politics. In this sense, the proposal is a form of whitewashing that seeks to erase the history of Indigenous resistance and activism in Australia. It does not recognize the ongoing struggle of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for sovereignty and self-determination and instead seeks to co-opt our leadership and activism for government purposes.
Ultimately, the Voice to Parliament proposal is a form of neocolonialism that seeks to maintain the power and privilege of non-Indigenous elites in Australia. It reinforces the idea that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are a minority group that require government protection and intervention. This perpetuates the colonial narrative that we are unable to govern ourselves and need the guidance of non-Indigenous authorities. The Voice is an attempt by the Australian government to maintain its control over Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, our territories and our future, and to silence any voices in opposition to the never-ending colonial violence wrought upon us. It is a form of co-option that seeks to undermine our resistance and activism by offering us token representation in the illegitimate colonial government, to be hand-picked by that illegitimate colonial government.
We reject the proposal!
