Community
24 October, 2023
Voice fail was wasted opportunity for Indigenous people
THE results are in and the majority of states and Australians have all voted ‘no’. Please can we change the rhetoric.
This was not Albanese’s Voice, this was an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, and in Far North Queensland, the regional and remote Indigenous communities all voted for a Voice.
The results across Australia in Indigenous communities were overwhelmingly in favour of the Voice. (For example at Yarrabah there were 520 for and 161 against).
Both Bob Katter and Warren Entsch should be analysing the figures and should realise that the Indigenous members in their electorate wanted something different to what they have been getting for the past 50-plus years.
They can continue to ignore their Indigenous communities, but it’s time to start a dialogue with communities and the Indigenous leaders and change outcomes. While they continue to ignore the facts, or conveniently remember the facts every so often, thousands of Indigenous children have a bleak future.
A future where they face shorter life expectancy than their non-Indigenous neighbours, a future where open-heart surgery threatens as acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) are genuine facts of life in their community.
A future where education and training opportunities are limited, and a future where their link and electronic communication with the outside world is third world standard.
This is not an over statement, nor is this a revelation. Non-Indigenous have heard this for years. The media organisations have reported this constantly. Politicians have visited communities and tut-tutted and shook their heads, but what has happened? Nothing.
As Eisenstein is famously attributed as saying, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result”.
The Voice to Parliament was the opportunity for do something different and to expect a different result.
Suzanne Andrews is the chief executive of Gurriny Yealamucka Health Services at Yarrabah
