Do Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders already have political representation?

Last week I saw the first TV advertisements promoting a Yes vote for the Voice to parliament.

At first glance it made sense to give the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people an additional constitutional power of representation to parliament … then I started thinking.

Do Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders already have political representation?

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) states that 3.8 % of Australians identify themselves as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. The Federal parliament is made up of 227 members, of which 11 elected representatives identify themselves as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. This provides a 4.8% representation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens.

Senator Viki Campion in the Guardian (03.12.22 ) observed numerous other forms of additional representation, including

“the Parliamentary Indigenous Evaluation Committee, the secretaries subcommittee on Indigenous affairs, the National Indigenous Australians Agency Advisory Body , the Prime Ministers Indigenous Advisory Committee, the 151 land trusts, 31 Local Aboriginal Land Councils, the more than 50 Aboriginal peak Organisations providing advice to government, the more than 1 Billion dollar Department of Indigenous Affairs, or the tax payer funded Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social just commission.”

(1 x Federal Department and 8 equivalent State & Territory Departments. National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) = 32 Offices 1200 staff. Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA), Council of Peaks (80+ organisations across Nation), Office of Registration of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC), About 700 Regional and Local Organisations.)

It is proposed that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people also have an Ambassador to represent themselves internationally. “Treaty” legislation is soon to be introduced in some State Parliaments that will inevitably provide additional representative powers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. It is also fair to observe that barely a day goes by without significant media representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues.

It seems clear that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are well and truly represented in our democracy. So why would we change the constitution to create a perpetual power of additional representation for one race – when that race already has disproportionally representative power in our democracy already?

Australia is now a multi-racial society, and our system of democracy should not be biased towards any particular race.

The more I reflect on this the more I’m inclined to believe that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples already are well represented in our democracy and our constitution should not be changed to favour one race over all others.