‘We need your community to actively pressure politicians’

Australia is headed to a referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament and Indigenous Australians are expecting active support from the Jewish community

FIRST NATIONS ADVOCATE Thomas Mayor has called on the Jewish community to keep up the pressure on politicians to ensure Prime Minister’s Anthony Albanese’s election night commitment to the Uluru Statement from the Heart translates into a successful constitutional change.

Mayor has been at the heart of the Uluru campaign since May 2017 when Indigenous leaders made the call for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament and a Makarrata commission for truth telling and treaty-making was resolved by First Nations leaders in May 2017.

He was entrusted to carry the sacred canvas of the statement around Australia for 18 months to garner support. Among those who embraced the call quickly were many in the Jewish community.

“There’s been a lot of support from the Jewish community, and we need that support to continue. We need to continue to educate others about what a Voice will mean both practically and symbolically,” Mayor told The Jewish Independent.

“We need your community to actively pressure politicians, not just the Labor Government but also other parties and independents to keep them focused.

“If we don’t work on politicians to keep them focused on achieving this there’s a danger that politicians, being politicians, it may be wound back or delayed, and the government will move on to other issues.”

Mayor said The Voice is essential to closing the gap because it ensures that Indigenous people will be consulted on all issues that affect them.

“A Voice to Parliament will have a huge impact on the disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians because it will mean Indigenous people will be consulted on every issue that affects them. It’s not just Indigenous issues specifically: it’s health, it’s education, it’s every part of government policy. Everything affects us and we need to be involved in making the policies.”