The Voice

The social enterprise sector has a shared value of justice, and in the upcoming referendum, Social Enterprise Australia?supports a Yes vote.?

Last month we hosted an open-invite conversation with Aboriginal social enterprise leaders Liandra Gaykamangu and Adrian Appo OAM about the?Uluru?Statement from the Heart?and the?upcoming referendum. This was attended by 112 people from across our sector. Liandra and Adrian each shared their reflections, struggles and hopes. They provided clarity on what Australians are and are not being asked.

At the end of the session, we asked attendees three questions to help guide our work. 94% said they want Social Enterprise Australia to take a position on the upcoming referendum, 98% said that position should be Yes, and 100% said they want us to support the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

On October 14, we are being asked if we want "A proposed law: To alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice".

That's what we're being asked to vote on. Those words.?

Specifically, Yes would result in the following being added to our Constitution:

In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:

(i) there shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice;

(ii) 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;

(iii) 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.

Headings and an associated change to the table of contents in the Constitution would also be made.

We support Yes because change is needed.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a life expectancy about eight years less than non-Indigenous Australians and suffer disproportionately high rates of suicide, domestic violence and incarceration.?There are big gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in infant mortality, health, housing, education and employment. An Indigenous Australian teenage boy is?more likely?to go to jail than go to university.

We support Yes because how this change looks should be informed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices.

All people should be part of the decisions that affect their lives, and this has disproportionately not been the case for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. For policies that relate to social enterprise, our sector says we need a voice in their design. Ditto Indigenous Australians. The best outcomes emerge when the voices of those affected are heard.

We support Yes because Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples?should be recognised as the First Peoples of Australia in our Constitution.?

Australia is the only first-world nation with a history of dispossession that doesn't do this. Others changed their constitutions and so should we... And not for the first time. We once had a Constitution that said "In reckoning the numbers of people of the Commonwealth... aboriginal [sic] natives shall not be counted". Australians voted to remove these words.

And we support Yes because this matters.

More accurately, we're saying Yes out loud because being silent about things that matter - while often easier - has never led to change. We back the majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples -?83% of 732 surveyed in 151 electorates including metro, regional and remote areas?- who say that this is needed.

Want to do the same? Speak up, join the list of social enterprises naming their support for Yes, and get active.?If you haven't already, check out the?Yes23?website. There you'll find hundreds of ways to get?involved?between now?and the?referendum.