The aged care and disability systems champion dignity, choice, and self-determination for elderly Australians and Australians with disability through ‘listening’ to and ‘hearing’ their voices.
As we face the Voice referendum, we, as a nation, need to learn how to ‘listen’ and ‘hear’ what it is our First Peoples are saying.
The act of ‘listening’ and ‘hearing’ is transformative. We know that when voices, once sidelined, are given the platform they need, they become part of a much richer and more nuanced conversation which leads to better social and economic outcomes, not just for those voices, but for families, communities and governments at all levels. However, as a nation, we have not fully embraced this principle for our First Nations communities.
More than 30 years ago, as an idealistic law student, I studied the findings of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody with a particular focus on Indigenous children in custody. Back then, I believed that the shocking findings and more than the 330 recommendations would bring impactful change. Because we were finally ‘listening’. Today however, we find ourselves with record-high Aboriginal deaths in custody and conditions for many First Nations children have worsened with the number of children in out-of-home care surging from under 10,000 in 2008 to over 22,000 in 2023.
The current Voice referendum campaign, despite beginning with such optimism and hope for improvement, has quickly become charged, polarising, and heavily politicised. It's easy to forget that the call for a referendum began with simply a hope for something better. Aboriginal communities need, we need, a brighter future for our Indigenous children. Our Aboriginal elders and Aboriginal people with disability need the same outcomes we know and have come to expect for non-Aboriginal Australians.
Too many Indigenous elders are still dying earlier than they should and in substandard conditions.
Evidence abounds that when First Nations peoples have a genuine say in the design and delivery of policies, programs and services that affect them, better life outcomes are achieved. So why are we not seeing progress?
The fact is, we’re still not really ‘listening’ and we’re definitely not ‘hearing’. These things are hard, particularly when what is being said is politically unpalatable or inconvenient. Since 1958, we have had numerous government-backed representative bodies aimed at empowering First Nations communities. All have been disbanded when the things they had to say were deemed too challenging by the government of the day (on both sides of politics). That is, when we've listened in the past, we've really only done so when it suited us, when it was easy or there was a sufficient level of outrage or other political imperative. We haven't ‘listened’ long enough or hard enough. Given that, on many measures, outcomes for Aboriginal people have worsened, we certainly haven’t ‘heard’.
The forthcoming 'Voice' referendum is the Australian community’s chance to not only recognise the 60,000 years of First Nations rich and complex culture in our founding document but also to make a promise to listen (not for the first time). It is an opportunity to put ourselves in a position to address the gaps in health, education and employment which diminish us all. The Voice will not close these gaps - ultimately this will come down to the hearts and minds of the decision-makers. However, it will be the start of a more challenging, yes, but an all the more richer conversation to that end.
We know that a failure to ‘listen’ and to ‘hear’ causes injustice, inequality, abuse, pain and tragedy. We see this each time we hold a Royal Commission into an issue, whether it be Aged Care, Banking, Deaths in Custody, Disability, Veterans, Robodebt or Child Sexual Abuse. We need to move beyond this for our First Nations people now. This is a defining moment for Australia. As Paul Kelly says, ‘No leaves us nowhere, Yes breathes in new air’. We won’t see another moment like this in our lifetimes.
Sincere thanks to Kate Daniels, Aged Care and Disability Lawyer, for her contribution to this article.
This article first appeared in Amber Crosthwaite's article for Business News Magazine on 13th October 2023.