Call for greater detail

Australians are being asked to vote in a referendum later this year to provide for an Indigenous Voice to our Parliament to be included in our Constitution.

It appears the details of how this ‘Voice’ will operate and what its powers might be are very vague at this time and there seems to be a great reluctance for the public to be fully informed.

To alter our Constitution is a matter for serious deliberation as we are required to live with the consequences once that alteration or amendment is implemented.

This fact requires all voting Australians to know all the details involved with this proposition, prior to going to the ballot box.

To not provide all the details of how this ‘Voice’ will be created and what the powers available to it might be is asking Australians to buy a ‘pig in a poke’. For those who are not familiar with this term, it simply means, you do not know what you are going to get.

Questions are already raised as to who will make up this ‘Voice’, how they may be elected or appointed. What will their tenure of election or appointment be? Who will be eligible to elect or appoint them?

Another question that should be answered and understood is: What actions, if any, will be available to the ‘Voice’ should the Parliament decide not to take the advice given to it?

To be requested to vote for a proposal, without the details as to how it will operate and the extent of its powers, is dangerous as it will be left until after the referendum has been decided before we know the answers to the questions raised.

Bill Ower, Horsham