Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has announced the holding of the referendum to update the Constitution to include more representation in Parliament for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens, Australia’s Aboriginal communities, by December next year.
«By the time (the) Woodford (festival) is held next year, the Voice to Parliament referendum will have been held. This is an opportunity for all of us to be part of enriching our nation and to be even stronger in the future,» the Australian leader announced during a speech at the Woodford Folk Festival in the Australian state of Queensland.
For Albanese, this unprecedented event will give a voice to Aboriginal communities and will improve «the way Australians see ourselves, as well as the way the world sees us».
The Executive has issued several reports on how the future representation of the indigenous people in the Parliament would work, but it has not specified all the functions or rules before it is voted in referendum by the Australian citizens, according to Abc News.
«The people will vote on the principle that Indigenous people will be guaranteed a fairer say in the laws and policies that affect them, and Parliament will legislate the details,» Australian Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney clarified during the same speech.
These declarations come a week after the MP of The Nationals for Regional Australia party, Andrew Gee, left the party for refusing to support the referendum, as mentioned by the aforementioned media.
THE AUSTRALIAN EFFORT TO INCLUDE ABORIGINAL VOICES In May 2017, more than 250 leaders of indigenous communities from across Australia gathered in the Uluru desert region to launch a declaration calling for the establishment of a representation of these peoples in the Australian Constitution.
Thus, Anthony Albanese, initially committed to the holding of such a referendum already in his first words as Prime Minister during his speech after his election victory in May 2022.
«We should consider asking our fellow Australians something as simple as: «Do you support an amendment to the Constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice?», said then the Minister for Indigenous Affairs Linda Burney days later, according to the quoted media.
To this day, the Aboriginal issue remains one of the hot topics in Australia, where indigenous communities do not share many of the rules contained in the Australian Constitution and therefore demand greater participation in government bodies.
For its part, the opposition remains skeptical of these demands and continues to ask the government for more information on the extent to which Australian laws and policies could be influenced.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
