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A rift in the Victorian First Peoples’ Assembly over its support for a national Indigenous Voice to parliament has sparked warnings that looming treaty negotiations with the state government will suffer from any disunity.
The push from a minority faction to reverse the assembly’s formal endorsement of the Voice has prompted an emergency board meeting as nine members of the body predicted any attempt to support a No vote was doomed to fail.
Co-chairs of the First Peoples Assembly Gunditjmara man Rueben Berg and Wamba Wamba, Yorta Yorta, Dhudhuuroa and Dja Dja Wurrung woman Ngarra Murray.Credit: Justin McManus
New member Gary Murray – a community leader descended from multiple clan groups – is part of the faction pushing to rethink the body’s endorsement of the Voice, saying he would push for renewed debate and to potentially reverse the support.
Murray, a long-time critic of the representative structure of the assembly, said a “new batch of members” elected to the 32-member assembly in June did not support the position adopted by the previous assembly.
“We have got to have the discussion. We have got to revisit the position. We need a thorough debate looking at: do we want that position, or how do we improve it? It may be that we reject it,” he said.
The First Peoples’ Assembly was established in 2019 and is the representative body of traditional owners and First Peoples in Victoria.
Gary Murray speaking outside state parliament last month.Credit: Justin McManus
The assembly is tasked with opening negotiations on a state treaty over the next four years and many of the assembly’s members said the push to wind back support for the Voice undermined its strength as it readies to open talks with the government.
Nine members speaking anonymously to detail confidential discussions said an emergency board meeting would be held on Thursday to discuss the development, but it would yield the same result.
One described the bid as a “disappointing and unnecessary distraction”.
“Do we have to re-examine every decision made by the first assembly? It’s not productive. We should be focused on the job ahead,” the member said.
Another member said it would be “extremely difficult” to reverse the formal endorsement of the Voice, since more than half of the newly elected assembly were returning members who voted in favour of the Voice during the last assembly.
Gunditjmara man Rueben Berg, and Wamba Wamba, Yorta Yorta, Dhudhuroa and Dja Dja Wurrung woman Ngarra Murray – the daughter of Gary Murray – have both expressed full support for the Indigenous Voice after they were elected to their roles as co-chairs of the new assembly.
“I dare them to bring a motion to the floor. It will be an ‘own goal’ if this were to proceed. Let’s see what happens,” another member said.
Another member said: “a ‘No vote’ resolution would result in the cannibalisation of the assembly’s standing and authority.”
As reported in The Guardian on Monday, the representative member for the metro area, Tracey Evans – a Gunditjmara and Bundjalung woman – said the assembly should revisit its endorsement of the Voice.
“We need to have another conversation with the current members that have been elected in on what their position is,” Evans said.
Murray, who two weeks ago used his first speech to call for an “elders’ authority” that would operate under a “sovereign constitution”, said the Voice was a furphy and instead proposed a different model.
“The real game is a new body, a national body that fits in neatly with what we’ve got in Victoria, and that body should have a sovereign constitution that shouldn’t be legalised around a federal government or state government incorporation rules,” Murray said at the time.
He also called for a series of statewide meetings that would include clans or nations that he said were not represented in the assembly governance structure. Another member said there was next to no support among the assembly majority for Murray’s views.
“Everybody had the right to respond to it when it was raised during first chamber last month, and his speech was met with silence. Nobody sitting in chamber responded in support,” the member said.
Co-chair Ngarra Murray said in a statement that the assembly urged everyone to vote Yes in the upcoming referendum.
“We get far better outcomes when Aboriginal people are involved in creating the programs and policies that affect us. That’s what the Voice is all about. The vast majority of Aboriginal people support the Voice to parliament, and that’s the same in our assembly,” she said.
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