Six former presidents of the Australian Barristers Association and Law Council of Australia said Wednesday they would each be voting in favour of the Voice at this year’s referendum.

The barristers are former ABA presidents Jennifer Batrouney KC, Dr Matt Collins KC, Matthew Howard SC, Noel Hutley SC and Fiona McLeod, and former LCA president Arthur Moses.

“Each of us has closely examined the proposed amendment set out in the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023. We each believe the amendment, if passed, would strengthen our democracy by giving Indigenous  Australians a substantive, meaningful and proportionate entitlement to make representations in  relation to policies and initiatives that impact their communities,” the barristers said.

The group said the amendment, which would authorise Parliament to make laws relating to representations by the Voice, had been carefully drafted and reviewed, and was “constitutionally orthodox”.

The language of the proposed provision was materially identical to that in section 51 of the Constitution, which empowered Parliament to make laws on trade and commerce, taxation, external affairs and defence, they noted.

“Australia’s Indigenous peoples have suffered from historic injustices as a result of the colonisation and dispossession of their lands, territories and resources in a way that has prevented them from achieving full and equal participation in our society. We each believe those injustices warrant Constitutional recognition and enshrinement of a Voice,” the barristers said. 

“We each believe that success of the referendum will be a powerful statement of reconciliation and unity that will resound throughout this land and beyond. In the language of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, it will be an acceptance of the invitation of Australia’s First Nations peoples to walk together in a movement for a better future.”

The LCA said this week the amendment to the Constitution was just and legally sound, and should be passed in its current form.

“We continue to support a constitutionally enshrined Voice and believe the proposed amendment responds to the invitation to the Australian public for constitutional reform in the Uluru Statement from the Heart,” the council’s president, Luke Murphy, said.

“The Voice will be an advisory body which is empowered to make representations on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. 

“The Voice will deliver a substantive mechanism for change. Providing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with a voice to represent their views about how policies, programs and laws would affect them, should lead to more informed decision-making. It will help address the power imbalances embedded since (and beyond) the establishment of the Constitution, which have enabled entrenched dispossession and disadvantage.”

Murphy stressed that the proposed amendment would not give the Voice a veto or law-making power, but only power to make representations.

“It is not framed as a duty on the Executive, or Parliament, to consult the Voice. Parliament can decide whether and when a representation by the Voice must be considered by the Executive,” he said.

 “The majority of instances in which the Voice may make representations – such as regarding the development of policies, programs and bills – will not be justiciable.

“Australia has unfinished Constitutional business, and we now have the opportunity to ensure Australia’s supreme law substantially recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the original custodians of the land.”

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