freediver wrote on Mar 27
th, 2023 at 7:01am:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/26/fears-indigenous-australians-could-be-disfranchised-in-voice-referendum-unless-voting-rules-changed
Despite the Greens pushing the government to allow voters to enrol on referendum day, voters will be required to enrol in advance in order to cast their vote – something advocates say could negatively affect Indigenous communities.
“In a perverse way, [the current rules are] stopping our mob and suppressing their voice to get a voice – it’s a very unusual situation,” the Kamilaroi man said.
“If someone turns up at a polling booth and there’s a person in the community that can vouch for that person – they should be able to vote, that is what we are advocating for.”
And of course they would all need a translator like McGowan's, to explain the wording of the referendum question in Aboriginese and explain the meaning and purpose of constitutional change in the context of the legal framework of how Australia is governed.
I'd like to hear in Aborigines Kriol how the details would be explained to all those remote ones (!) who don't speak English and can't read and write.
Readers are invited to translate this into Aborigines Kriol:
"A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Do you approve this proposed alteration?"
As well as that, it will be put to Australians that the constitution be amended to include a new chapter titled "Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples".
The details to be inserted in to Constitution would be:
"In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:
1.There shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice;
2.The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
3.The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures."