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ABL argues Indigenous Voice needs and deserves constitutional backing

Native Title & Public Interest Law
Arnold Bloch Leibler’s submission to the panel responsible for co-designing an Indigenous advisory Voice to government and federal parliament has been picked up by The Australian and SKY News, with coverage focusing on the firm’s strong advocacy for enabling legislation to be passed subsequent to a successful referendum.

Quoted in The Australian, senior partner Mark Leibler said that: “As part of the final phase of the co-design process, an exposure draft bill for the Voice should now be developed, as well as options for the wording of a possible constitutional amendment.

“As a purely legislated Voice would be highly unlikely to attract support from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and therefore unlikely to attract support from the wider community, enabling legislation should only be passed subsequent to a successful referendum.”

Interviewed by SKY News commentator, Chris Kenny, Mark explained that the advisory Voice is the only model of constitution recognition endorsed by the people we seek to recognise and was agreed to following the most proportionally representative consultation process ever undertaken with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

“The real question is why shouldn’t the existence of the Voice be embedded in the Constitution? Why not, given that every aspect of how the body would be formed, how it would function would be determined by the parliament, and could be changed by the parliament at any point.”

The submission was lodged on behalf of the partners and the firm overall by senior partner Mark Leibler and public interest partner Peter Seidel.

To read the ABL submission, click here.

To view the SKY News interview with Mark, click here.

To read the online article in The Australian, click here.

To read the print edition of The Australian, click here.

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