Voice or Invoice?

At the 2018 Garma Key Forum, Noel Pearson, FNQ, Federally-funded, grant-consumer and activist for The Uluru Statement From The Heart, gave this warning to all Australians who think the 2023 referendum is a simple request with no further agenda:

‘We’ve gotta have a foundational negotiation. But before we can do that, we can’t just enter into it willy-nilly. We need a constitutional voice for the First ‘Nations’; a position from which we can never be shifted; a position from which to negotiate with all of the moral and historical power that is ours by virtue of our possession of this land for more than sixty thousand millennia.  (Ed. that's 60 millions years)

‘So for those of us who’ve come late to this strategy, you need to wake up. Treaty is the second door. The first door is constitutional enshrinement.’

Renting back the land is the third.

The Indigenous legal representative for The Voice stated in Cairns in late 2019 that they will not stop campaigning until they see the abolition of Torrens Title in Australia. (the system of freehold land ownership).

“All Australians will pay council rates for local council services and rent to the local Aboriginal Corporation for the use of our land.”

Thomas Mayo's "Pay The Rent" tweats revealed he will call on homeowners “to voluntarily pay a percentage of their income to Aboriginal elders without any government oversight or intervention.”

At a May Day rally held last month in Port Kembla, Mayo told those gathered,  “Every time, comrades, that we've established a voice as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the bastards have taken it away from us.”

Mayo singled out former Australian Prime Minister John Howard as one of those “bastards”, according to The Australian.

Mayo stated his clear intention to “change the system and tear down the institutions that harm our people”. 

He also said that "the power of the Voice would be its ability to punish politicians that ignore our advice” on legislation and funding.

Ken Wyatt, ex Federal MP, commenting on the 2015 native title settlement between the Western Australia Government and the south-west Noongar People for $1.3b, described the settlement as “a treaty in the true sense”.

From 1850, indigenous men, over the age of 21, had the same right to vote in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia democracies.

All indigenous people were given the right to enroll and vote in democratic elections from May 21, 1962. (Commonwealth Electoral Act 1962)

The indigenous people of Australia were recognised in the constitutional referendum of May 27, 1967.  The referendum had 94% turnout and 90.8% support.

Two changes were made to the Australian Constitution that removed discrimination against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people:
    1.   Section 127 was repealed
    2.   Section 51 was modified
allowing indigenous people to be "reckoned" in the population.

The changes enabled the Australian Parliament to:
    a.   make special laws for indigenous people

    b.   count indigenous people in the national census.

It is disappointing that those changes happened 67 years after Federation, but, they did happen ... 56 years ago.  Subsequent legislative acts and grants have given indigenous people preferential treatment and funding.

Preliminary Y chromosome studies by Dr Nathaniel T Jeanson (Ph.D. Harvard) indicates that Indigenous Australians are a hybrid gene pool of Indian, Indonesian, Papua New Guinean and Pacific Islander peoples. (Traced: Human DNA’s Big Surprise)

Like the Native American Indians that displaced the previous inhabitants of North America, today’s indigenous people invaded Australia in the last 5,000-6,000 years and populated different regions giving rise to entrenched cultural and language based disputes.  They are not the ancestral owners of the land, they were the previous inhabitants.

Australia’s current indigenous people do not have 65,000 years of history.  It’s probable they displaced some original inhabitants such as the “Mungo Man” of central NSW that local elders will not allow science to analyse.

The indigenous people of Tasmania are perhaps the purest “nation” with Y chromosome links to Papua New Guinea some 6,000 years ago.

The genetic inheritance issue needs to be resolved before any discussion on treaties can commence.

British occupation of Eastern Australia was founded upon a principle of "terra nullius", a Latin expression meaning "nobody's land".  The premise was supported by the observations of early explorers that there were no settlements, no dwellings and no farming land - all European assumptions of occupation.

Governor Bourke proclaimed in 1835 that Indigenous Australians could not sell or assign land, nor could an individual person or group aquire land, other than through distribution by the Crown.

"The first test of the doctrine of terra nullius occurred in R v Tommy which held that the native inhabitants were only subject to English law where the incident concerned both natives and settlers. The rationale was that Aboriginal tribal groups already operated under their own legal systems. This position was further reinforced by the decisions of R v Ballard and R v Boatman." 

Very briefly ...

Constitutional Law purists will argue that the assumption of terra nullius was flawed and the subsequent case law acknowledged indigenous existence. There is in-principle merit to their argument.  The indigenous peoples were the previous occupants to British/European settlers and the Governor overruled their occupational "rights".

Bruce Pascoe, of Bunurong, Tasmanian, has spent a lifetime debunking the indigenous hunter-gatherer label.   See Challenging Terra Nullius - nla.gov.au

Australian Historian Geoffrey Blainey (born 1930) documented the nomadic tribal behaviour of indigenous tribes in his book "Triumph of the Nomads". Blainey was "the first writer to make the daring comparison that Aboriginal societies differed as much from one another as do the nations of Europe".

Blainey's subsequent texts The Story of the Australia's People Vol 1: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Australia and The Story of the Australia's People Vol 2: The Rise and Rise of a New Australia, give rise to a deeper understanding of pre-European settlement.

Terra Nullius was overturned by Mabo 1 (see Native Title Aggravation below).

We can state with certainty, Indigenous people preceded Europeans in occupying Australia and should be recognised accordingly in our Constitution.

Several indigenous groups will admit they do not own the land.  Rather they inherited use of the land from previous generations and steward it for successive generations.

It’s a noble, modern notion that should be commended, but it’s not supported in practice.

Since the inception of Paul Keating’s Native Title Act 1993 indigenous groups have been fighting over “traditional ownership” of land to control development and bank mineral royalties.  Smart indigenous operators got in early and registered numerous claims over neighbouring land at the expense of the rightful inhabitants.  (See below.)

Modern experiments in handing back National Parks to indigenous people to manage have been disastrous.  For example Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park in Far North Queensland is now a wasteland given over to weeds, feral pigs, rubbish and dumped motor vehicles. 

About 40% of Australia is covered by Native Title on behalf of 2.85% of the population.

As at June 2022, 16.1 per cent of Australia’s land area was owned or controlled by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.  (Unchanged from June 2020 and 2021.)

In contrast ...

13.8% of Australia's land mass has full or substantial foreign ownership. (ABS June 2020)

The largest individual holder of land is Gina Reinhardt who controls 1.2% (9.2m hectares) of Australia’s landmass, through three different corporate entities.

Do today's indigenous mixed-blood descendants really own all of Australia?

Successive Australian Governments have spent billions of dollars on:

• Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (1964)

• Department of Aboriginal Affairs (1972-1990)

• Aboriginal Land Fund Commission (1974)

• Aboriginal Land Rights Act (1976)

• Aboriginal Development Commission (1980)

• Aboriginal Loan Commission

• Aboriginal Provisional Government (1983-1996) - Geoff Clark

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission - Geoff Clark

  (Geoff Clark was suspended on multiple rape charges)

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commercial Development Corporation (1990)

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (1990-2005)

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Service (legal aid)

• National Indigenous Council (2004-2008) 

• Indigenous Business Australia and IBA Home Loans (2005)

• Indigenous Advisory Council (2013)

• National Indigenous Australians Agency (2019)
  et.al.

Indigenous Australians are given significant support to participate in modern society IF they want to.  Many don't.

Indigenous people were historically semi-nomadic people who lived off the land opportunistically.  They descended from warring and sometimes cannibalistic (FNQ rainforest groups) peoples from India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands.  They have a language-based tribal culture that naturally distrusts tribes of different languages and different regions. 

Adjacent language groups sometimes learned to coexist with semi-flexible hunting and food-gathering boundaries. Language groups once-removed, fought for survival.

Historian Geoffrey Blainey writes “the evidence for lethal fighting is overwhelming.  The death rate through [inter-tribal] warfare in Northern Arnhem Land was nearly six times higher than the United States in WWII”. The most common causes of violence were disputes over women, food and payback killings.

Blainey states that unlike New Zealand, it was impossible for the British to establish a treaty with tribal elders because of tribal fighting and infighting. Elders of each tribe only represented their own interests with a fluid claim over local land.

Today, regional language corporations are dominated by elders from one language group at the expense of other, less powerful elders.  For example the Noongar Boodjar Language Culture Aboriginal Corporation of W.A. is not equally representative of the fourteen language groups it supposedly represents.  It is dominated by elders of one language group at the expense of the other thirteen.

This author has consulted on territorial disputes over native title, preferential distribution of funds and personal appropriation of funds. There are superficial audits and no penalties for misappropriated funds inside Indigenous Corporations.

Indigenous people fight for advantage within their own land councils and across land councils.

Previous initiatives failed because they require personal change and not a big cash payout.

Australia is made up of 650 different ethnic groups that currently coexist as equals under the Constitution.
  -   There are 310+ non-indigenous ethnic groups. (ABS 2021)
  -   There were 340 different indigenous ethnic groups (Tindale et.al.) in 1950.
  -   The indigenous groups collectively rank as the 9th most populous proportion of the population with 2.92% combined representation.

Peter Baldwin, former Labour Minister, states that a Yes vote contravenes Article 1 of the International Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1965.

“The Voice provides a new mechanism for one racially defined group to exert additional influence on both Parliament and the Executive Government. That’s prohibited by Article 1 of the ICERD convention.”

Article 1 defines racial discrimination as:

… any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.

Article 1.4 allows for temporary measures to address disadvantaged peoples. It is explicit that those measures will expire. Changing the Constitution is not temporary.

Rowan Dean, Editor in Chief of the Spectator, states that a 'No vote' does not mean we're abandoning programs to help Indigenous people grow and thrive in our 21st century world. Rather,  

“... a no vote means: No to a race-based change to our constitution and No to an unelected bureaucracy with unspecified legal powers.”

We don’t have the full picture.

Why does one fragmented group of migrants get to dictate Government policy to the other migrants?

What power will the Makarrata Commission have over land ownership and recouping rent from other migrants?

Malcolm McCusker AC CVO KC, former Governor of WA, has fifteen implementation questions for Anthony Albanese that have gone unanswered. (see Quotable Quotes below)

Senator Malcolm Roberts explains that the Voice referendum is a test of Australia’s moral strength – a moment when "Australia has to decide if it is a nation of individuals working together in a democracy or a group of race collectives bargaining for power".

Indigenous Australians are currently unified in taking back land from non-indigenous Australians using our Constitution. (see Noel Pearson)  It is foolish to build racial separation into our constitution now.  It’s 2023.  We are one nation made up of people from over 600 different nations.  Our children and grandchildren will continue to intermarry and, if nurtured properly, will go on to build an even greater nation of blended genes.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart is not a one page document.  It is a twenty-six page document.  The first page is a sanitised summary masquerading as aspirational consultation and collaboration. 

The extended statement speaks to invasion, frontier wars, massacres, not ceding sovereignty, the struggle for land rights, recognition of native title, substantive structural reform, self determination, status and rights of indigenous people, protecting current financial benefits, signing a treaty and establishing the Makarrata Commission.

A “Yes” referendum will give rise to a Bill to establish the Voice to Parliament.

The Voice will introduce a second Bill to establish the Makarrata Commission that will be adopted by each State ceding sovereignty over land to indigenous people. (page 22)

The Makarrata Commission will enforce aboriginal sovereignty at the local level. (page 23)

Land use agreements will then be established with each local Aboriginal Corporation (page 26) “Nation by Nation”.

As James Macpherson states … 

”The Uluru Statement from the Heart is a deeply divisive document that envisages - as its ultimate goal - huge financial compensation being paid to Indigenous people on the basis that they were “here first”.  The document makes clear from the outset that “ownership of Australia has never been ceded and co-exists with the Crown.”

In August this year (2023), The West Australian Government hastily repealed the “2021 Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act” with “The Aboriginal Heritage Legislation Amendment and Repeal Bill of 2023” after significant negative press and pressure from Anthony Albanese.

The 2021 Act came into power in July 2023 and granted too much power to local Indigenous people without clear definition as to which “Nation” was the local authority.  Indigenous people were fighting amongst themselves over who had jurisdiction to open new roads and control modifications to white-man’s land.

Under the 2021 Act any landowner with more than 1,100 square metres of land was forced to pay indigenous people tens of thousands of dollars for cultural heritage assessments with no commitment to a decision date or an independent review of decisions. Farmers were ropeable.

The Act will be reinstated if the Yes vote wins.

Indigenous people are not one nation.  They are a collective of many warring nations divided by different languages.  Each nation has a history of land disputes extending beyond living memory.  It will take time to determine which language group has sovereignty over which piece of land in order to charge white people rent.  Territorial disputes will set our nation back decades.

Furthermore, Federal Government audits have found significant deficiencies in governance and financial reporting throughout the history of indigenous self management.  Experience reveals there will be limited audit trails for funds raised and funds spent.

Thomas Mayo has made it clear that they will not be accountable to white people.

An indigenous Makarrata Commission, will not:

1. 1. 1.  keep aboriginal children safe in their beds at night

      2.  address alcoholism and domestic violence

      3.  address foetal alcohol syndrome

      4.  get indigenous children back to school

      5.  address poor diets, diabetes and associated mortality rates

      6.  resolve power-plays within language groups

      7.  fix Paul Keating’s Native Title legislation

      8.  fix corruption and misappropriation of funding.

Australian politicians and judges are responsible for creating the current mess.

Through a succession of legal cases and three-tiered government bureaucracy we have deeply … profoundly … bitterly … frustrated the current indigenous peoples by the system of land ownership in Australia.  

Mabo 1 recognised the traditional rights of the Meriam people in the eastern Torres Strait.  

Mabo 2 inserted a notion of “Native Title” by the High Court into common law “according to their own laws and customs”.

The Federal Native Title Act of 1993 was subsequently passed by the Keating Labor Government and supposedly provided for “a national system for the recognition and protection of native title and for its coexistence with the national land management system".

BUT IT FAILED.

Native Title does not work:

Native Title is administered by Federal public servants.

Land Title is administered by the State public servants.

Building codes are applied by local councils under generic state-wide standards.

Indigenous people can use native title land for traditional activities … camping, gathering food, cooking protected species (manatees, turtles, goannas, wallabies et.al.) and having corroborees … but they can’t build on the land or attach anything to it.  If they want to build a permanent dwelling on the land, they need to transfer their native title to a state based lease or Torrens Title and then get approval to build buildings according to generic building standards.

Applicants bounce between local councils, state governments and federal governments in an endless merry-go-round of emails, letters and meetings over competing Native Title claims.  Smarter indigenous operators (and their lawyers) got in early and registered extended native title claims over traditional and neighbouring lands. When a legitimate conversion to Torrens Title is applied for, the application is deferred because of competing indigenous interests.  It frustrates applicants beyond belief.

The net result is a proliferation of cars, humpies, broken caravans, shipping containers, tents and tarpaulins scattered throughout the bush.

We need to fix the Native Title legislation!

The indigenous people have played the victim-card for a long time.  Yes, some of the children of previous generations were removed from families unnecessarily during the so called “stolen generations” but most were removed because of alcoholism, spousal abuse, sexual abuse and malnutrition.  History, conveniently, has a selective memory.  Very few of today’s political power brokers were alive during that era. They have all benefited from free schooling, good nutrition and well funded [government] jobs.

Looking ahead, our focus needs to shift to preserving and teaching indigenous culture AND teaching indigenous children how to survive in western society if they want to.  Many don’t.

Over several decades this author has met some truly beautiful indigenous people. They have good hearts. They have beautiful tribal family values and raise beautiful children in simple surroundings. They are good people who want to occupy the land peacefully and sustainably.

I have also met the drunken alcoholics, the lazy tribal elders, the paedophiles, the rapists, the embezzlers, the teenage vandals, the joy riders, the car-trashers, the prison recidivists and the old women who don’t know how to restore peace in their communities.

Some “respected” elders have little or no authority in their clan/tribe/mob because of their own poor behaviour.  They hide behind their elder status and “traditional practices” to avoid prosecution for criminal behaviour.  

Some elders fight for genuine change. 

Some simply want compensation in the form of cash in the bank and a new Toyota Land Cruiser.

If we are going to save indigenous culture, then we need to start with the quality of their men.  There are several programs starting to rebuild indigenous men’s lives after periods of incarceration … but we need more. 

Treaties don't require constitutional recognition.

Technically, treaties are signed between nations, not within nations.

If indigenous people want to be recognised as separate nations in order to sign treaties, then they should forgo their Australian citizenship and the associated services - medical, dental, occupational therapy, law & order, education, roads, transport, power, telecommunications, welfare etc. etc.

Treaties are signed under an assumption of prior sovereignty over land.  The assumption is sometimes flawed but is made for reasons of political expediency. 

Several countries have entered into treaties with previous custodians including Canada, New Zealand, the United States of America, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Japan and Greenland.  Those treaties have recognised prior occupation and have sought to compensate the current generation for injuries to prior generations with financial reparations.

History has proved that financial compensation will be squandered.  Settlements should be paid directly into education, health and economic development programs.

The subject of treaties is deserving of a much longer discussion.

The British Crown signed The Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 in New Zealand.  The treaty is often raised as precedent despite being frequently breached by both parties.  A treaty was made possible because of a common Maori language documented in 1815.

The United States signed more than 364 treaties with Native American Indians between 1778 and 1868.  Some groups have gone on to create strong “nations”, others continue to cry poor and seek additional financial support.

Canada’s 70 recognised treaties were the culmination of 300 years of political manoeuvring between Aboriginal, British and French nations. The levers were land, fur trade, access to European markets, weapons and military assets/positions.  The Aboriginal people negotiated between French and British interests and established a footing for future commercial success.  Some treaties led to self government; many groups still require ongoing financial support.

As of 2022, the Commonwealth and all States except Western Australia have committed to a treaty process.

In 2015, the Western Australia Government paid the south-west Noongar People $1.3b in a native title settlement. The settlement was described by Ken Wyatt MP as “a treaty in the true sense”.  It has not led to better health or education outcomes or financial sustainability.  Many Noongar people still require welfare payments.

In 2018, The Northern Territory’s Michael Gunner signed the Barunga Agreement committing his Government to develop a treaty.

In 2018, Victoria passed the “Advancing the Treaty Process with Aboriginal Victorians Act”.  In 2019 Victoria’s First People’s Assembly election failed with only 7% of eligible voters voting.

(Ownership of the greater Melbourne area was the subject of treaty signed in June 1835 with John Batman and the Wurundjeri people.  (See Batman's Treaty - Wikipedia)  For 600,000 acres of Melbourne, including most of the land now within the suburban area, Batman paid 40 pairs of blankets, 42 tomahawks, 130 knives, 62 pairs of scissors, 40 looking glasses, 250 handkerchiefs, 18 shirts, 4 flannel jackets, 4 suits of clothes and 150 lb. of flour.  The deal was declared void by Governor Bourke in August 1835.)

In 2021, Tasmania’s Peter Gutwein announced the beginning of a treaty and truth telling process.  Discussions have stalled trying to decide who should be counted as Aboriginal.

In 2022, South Australia’s Labor Government committed to restart the treaty process started by Jay Weatherill in 2016.

In 2023, the Queensland Parliament passed the Path To Treaty Act that also included a Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry.

In 2023, New South Wales appointed David Harris as the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty.

1.  Make indigenous culture education available to all Australians.

2.  Explore the different indigenous character types:

a.   the power-hungry elites
b.   the cashed-up athletes 
c.   the quiet, hard-working, middle classes
d.   the remote community dwellers
e.   the local park drunks that beg for cash
f.    the born-again Christians who live generously and graciously.

 It's not a one-size-fits-all problem.

3.  Rewrite Commonwealth Native Title legislation

4.  Actively resolve indigenous land disputes.

5.  Negotiate local treaties where appropriate and invest settlements in education, health and self governance programs.

6.  Review and redirect Australia’s spend on Indigenous people.

7.  Introduce balanced representation inside indigenous corporations

8.  Introduce governance and financial audits inside indigenous corporations.

9.  Prosecute guilty males and females for spousal abuse, paedophilia and embezzlement.

10.  Actively teach indigenous women to set behavioural boundaries.

11.  Proffer education on healthy food and good eating habits.

12.  Prohibit the sale and transport of alcohol into remote communities.

13.  Provide “up country” post-prison rehabilitation programs for incarcerated males.

14.  Proffer education facilities for indigenous youth with an emphasis on “up-country” outdoor content.

15.  Invest in leadership training for all Australians wanting to serve in politics.

Australian's need to do more to help our indigenous people take responsibility for their lives in the 21st century.

Crying poor, claiming victimhood, blaming 260 year old British invaders, defrauding undemocratic power, claiming sovereignty, purloining mining royalties and rent will not address the alcoholism, domestic abuse, foetal alcohol syndrome, child mortality rates, school truancy, poor diet, obesity, high death rates, paedophilia and youth crime rates in remote communities and regional towns.  It will only make them worse.

Giving a small group of indigenous power-brokers more power in Canberra AND more money, will not make life safer for indigenous children in bed at night and nor will it make life safer for non-indigenous people living in regional towns and cities.  You can plan on more crime, more red-tape, more black-tape and much higher insurance costs.

If you read all 26 pages of the Uluru Statement From The Heart, you will quickly realise that the Voice is not about health, education, domestic violence, mortality rates, consultation, conversations or listening;  it’s about sovereignty over land and the rents that will be demanded by local indigenous corporations under the Makarrata Commission.

This was a poorly planned woke initiative by a 32.58% Government seeking more votes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our ancestors have all come to Australia from foreign lands and this is our land to steward wisely for our children and our children’s children ad infinitem.

We are all transitory custodians of this beautiful nation.  We all have a duty of care to the land, rivers and oceans.

We all have a responsibility to collaborate and act in the best interest of the whole nation and help every group in need.

As the old proverb suggests, it's better that we teach them to fish.