Former Attorney General George Brandis has put forward a proposal for a simplified Voice to Parliament that would see him and a few other white guys sit down once a month to decide what Australia’s original inhabitants would’ve wanted.
Brandis, who wrote this week about what Australia’s first Indigenous MP Neville Bonner would’ve thought if he were still alive, said the new proposal made sense.
“If there’s one thing that white people have proven they’re good at, it’s understanding the intricacies of Indigenous culture and history. It’s worked pretty well for the last 230 years, so I don’t see a need to change it now,” he said.
Under the proposal, a small group of hand-picked white people would make Indigenous related decisions. “It’s basically the same as the way it works now, we’d just enshrine it in the Constitution”.
Brandis said simplicity was key when it came to Constitutional change. “If I’ve learnt anything in my time in the law it’s that you don’t want to add in unnecessary complications. Getting Indigenous people involved in making decisions about their own lives is a lovely idea, but it’s a little bit finicky”.
