An explainer of the 2023 referendum suitable for general audiences

1. Understanding the Referendum
To establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice

2. In 2023, Australians will be asked to vote
yes or no to a proposal to change the
Australian Constitution

3. What you need to know
Be an informed voter
• Changing the Constitution
• Background to the proposal
• The proposal
• What next?

4. The Constitution

5. • Parliament’s powers are outlined
• No mention of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people
• To change requires referendum:
majority of people in a majority of
states

6. Parliament’s powers
• Very high level - no detail
• Includes ‘race power’
• …may make laws in respect of the people of any race
• This has only ever been exercised in respect of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people
• But no consultation is required

7. The special status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• Parliament makes special laws about Indigenous people because they are
Indigenous
• But Parliament uses the ‘race’ power to do this
• Our system of governance makes no provision for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people to have a say in these laws

8. Background to the proposal

9. Recognition movement
• Multiple government reports over 20 years looking into ‘recognition’ of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Constitution, but no action
• Proposals for symbolic recognition
• Failed at 1999 referendum
• Rejected by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

10. Uluṟu Statement from the Heart
• Regional Dialogues within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
culminated in consensus statement (2017)
• Voice
• Treaty
• Truth
• In that order

11. Enshrined in the Constitution
• Without constitutional standing, the body can be abolished by Parliament
• This has happened many times before
• Establishing the institution in the Constitution makes it permanent but still
provides flexibility by giving Parliament the power to set it up operationally
• This achieves a balance: the certainty of institutional continuity, maintaining
Parliamentary supremacy

12. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have
proposed this as their own solution to the silence
in Australia’s system of governance

13. The referendum proposal

14. A new section in the Constitution
Proposed s129
• Recognise the special status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
as First Peoples
• Create an institution affording Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people a
means of making representations to government on matters affecting them
• Empower Parliament to determine how it is set up

15. The intended outcome is better policy
making, better laws, relating to ‘Indigenous
Affairs’

16. What will The Voice look like?
• Details not in Constitution because
• Constitution only contains high level powers to make laws
• Flexibility for Parliament to adapt the Voice to contemporary contexts
• Design principles are settled, eg
• Comprises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people selected by their
own communities
• Fixed terms to ensure renewal over time

17. The threshold question for voters
• Do you agree to the establishment of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Voice

18. Limitations of the voter’s role
• It’s not a legal question
• It’s not a question of detail
• It’s not about other possibilities
• All these decisions have been made
• This is the only proposal on offer, and the only one likely in a generation
• It’s only yes, or no

19. What we learned from the last referendum:
voters cannot afford to let the perfect be the
enemy of the good