Australia is about to have it’s first referendum in 24 years.
In March this year the Australian Government announced there will be a referendum held between October and December 2023 called the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum.
The Voice will be enshrined into the Constitution and Australians will be voting whether or not to enshrine that voice into our Constitution to allow Indigenous voice to advise our politicians on matters affecting Indigenous people.
This has raised a number of questions such as: How much will we know about the Voice on referendum day, and how will it function and whose voice will it actually represent?
We know that should Australians vote to enshrine the Voice into the constitution then Parliament and the government will be obliged to consult it on matters that overwhelmingly relate to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people such as native title, employment, housing, the community development program, the NDIS or heritage protection.
Critics of the Voice have raised the fears the Voice could spur court challenge and there are better ways to deal with issues that are currently affecting Aboriginal people.
Former Indigenous Politician Warren Mundine said that Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people already had a voice in decisions that affected them.
“When I am going to Canberra, when I am dealing with the Minister for Resources or the Minister for the Environment, I’m tripping over Aboriginal people, they are literally everywhere in the parliament,” He told a debate in Perth.
While supporters of the Voice say that the Voice is a proposal that came from ‘hundreds of aboriginal representatives who were asked how they could be best included in the Australian constitution.’
Both arguments have merit
The fact is, this will be a referendum that will split Australia down the middle, there will be some people with a very good reason to vote yes there will be others with a very good reason to vote no.
The main thing especially as Christians is to respect people even if you feel their choices are wrong.
In other words, if you are in the ‘yes’ camp, don’t be a jerk, there will be some people with deep reservations about the Voice and don’t feel we should alter our constitution over something that will create further bureaucracy.
If you are in the ‘no’ camp, respect the people who want to vote yes.
There will be people voting yes for really good, honest reasons - they just want to do what they feel is a representative of how a lot of Aboriginal people feel, which was evidenced during the Uluru statement from the heart which recommended this Voice be established in our constitution.
The heart of the nation must remain intact
Whether or not we support The Uluru Statement from the Heart the most important thing is the Heart of the Nation remains intact.
I am not talking about Canberra, but I am talking about our soul our unity.
My prayer is that whether or not the nations vote yes or no, that our heart remains intact, and that we don’t allow ourselves to be divided over something that really has no impact on our soul.
God’s hand is on this, we all have our views and we should be honest about how we feel.
Let’s keep our soul intact and respect those on the other side of the fence. The worst thing that can happen with this referendum is if our heart is broken.