The head of central Victorian traditional owner corporation Djaara says he is at a loss to understand why The National Party would oppose an Indigenous Voice to parliament.
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Rodney Carter, the chief executive of Dja Dja Wurrung entity Djaara, described the proposed Voice as a "sensible" development, which was emotionally and practically important to Indigenous people.
The Voice is a key recommendation to have emerged from the Uluru Statement from the Heart authored by Indigenous Australians five years ago.
It would see two or three members from each state and territory - plus the Torres Strait Islands - appointed to a body which provides advice to the Australian parliament and government on "national matters of significance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people".
Linked to the national Voice would be "local and regional Voices" established in 35 regions around the country which would provide an avenue for Indigenous peoples to be involved in government decision-making at a local and regional level, as well as feeding their views back to the national body.
The Nationals shocked many people this week when leader David Littleproud announced the party would not support a 2023 referendum on the establishment of a Voice because it didn't believe it would help close the gap in health and socioeconomic outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Indigenous Australians.
Victorian Nationals leader and shadow Aboriginal affairs minister Peter Walsh said on Wednesday the Victorian Nationals would also oppose the proposal because it lacked detail.
"Just to have a referendum and say a parliamentary committee will then design what comes out of that referendum, I don't think that's the way to go about it," he told ABC Radio National.
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Mr Carter said he was puzzled by the Victorian Nationals' leader's statement, given he had some knowledge and experience of Indigenous issues.
"I'm a little bit at a loss to understand why he would be doing this through the party and his leadership," he said.
"For me, it doesn't seem logical."
Mr Carter found the Nationals' dismissal of an advisory body on the grounds it wouldn't close the gap as "paternalistic".
"It projects people as caring, but it's misplaced care," Mr Carter said.
Practising "empathy, empowerment, walking beside people and helping them up" were the ways to tackle the entrenched disadvantage, he said, and for First Nations people, a mechanism to enable input on government processes was both emotionally and practically important.
"If I'm talking to someone, I want to be heard, that's important to me," Mr Carter said.
"It's emotionally important and it could be practically important. Then if my voice isn't heard ... it's hurtful and it's damaging.
"I just think Australia should get their head around this. It's that simple.
"Don't shout us down, in a sense, don't lock us out and [deny] us the opportunity to make a comment."
Mr Carter stressed the proposed Voice would be advisory in nature.
"It's [about] giving advice - it's not hindering the [political] process or intervening, and although it's adding what I describe as another ingredient to the process, it's constructive," he said.
"If you think about [seeking] diversity of views in formulating actions and ideas, it just becomes sensible now that you would actually have First Nations people contributing to the conversation."
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