‘This is our lives’: Voice inquiry hears northern views

Rudi Maxwell | April 20, 2023

The parliamentary inquiry into an Indigenous voice has heard some real-world examples of how it might work during a hearing in Cairns.

Chief executive of the Cape York Partnership, Fiona Jose, who has Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage, told the parliamentary inquiry the voice was personal.

“This is our lives,” she said on Wednesday.

“And we have to talk to everyone about how you can enable and help us so that my four-year-old and our children aren’t dealing with this.

“And so that I have some confidence as a mother that in the future, that they actually go, ‘We’re going to close the gap’.”

Ms Jose and Kirstyne Davis, chief executive of the Cape York Institute, explained how the work they had been doing looked at ways to include local people’s priorities.

Ms Jose said real empowerment of First Nations people would come when they were enabled to articulate the challenges in their own communities and come up with their own solutions.

“When they’re able to put forward these are the challenges and say, we’ve already come together from our kitchen tables, from our campfires, from our homes and talked around ideas that we believe can solve these challenges at a local level and those local challenges come together in a regional position,” she said. 

Torres Strait Island Regional Council Mayor Phillemon Mosby said the people of the Torres Strait view a First Nations voice as unfinished business.

“We stand with our Aboriginal brothers and sisters of this country, as Torres Strait Islanders, we support the voice to parliament,” he said.

“We feel that this is unfinished business and continues the job that was done by our predecessor, the late honourable Eddie Mabo, who overturned the doctrine of terra nullius.” 

Torres Strait Island councils and traditional owner groups from Cape York and the Torres Strait are among those who gave evidence at the hearing on Wednesday.

Cape York Land Council chair Richie Ah Mat said an Indigenous voice was a modest request.

“We’re not asking for extra money, we’re not asking anyone to cut an arm off, we’re just saying listen to us,” he said.

Mr Ah Mat said he was upset by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton campaigning against the voice, particularly given the timing of the announcement coming so soon after the death of land rights champion Yunupingu.

“I thought it was unacceptable behaviour and disrespectful to that person who passed away,” he said.

Northern Peninsula Area Mayor Patricia Yusia said decisions made in Canberra frequently had consequences for remote communities.

“Our people are still dying younger, facing poor educational outcomes, living in poor and overcrowded houses and facing multiple preventable chronic diseases,” she said. 

“We represent one of the most socially and economically disadvantaged areas of Queensland. 

“This is partially due to policy decisions being made without consideration or review of the impacts that will have on remote communities.”

Australians will vote in the referendum on the voice between October and December.

“We’ve got to get consensus from everybody to get this referendum across the line,” Mr Ah Mat said.

“I really can’t understand what’s coming from this ‘no’ campaign.

“There are other Indigenous people who are supporting a ‘no’ campaign, it’s like they don’t want their own people to be recognised in this country.” 

The next hearing will be on April 28 in Perth.