South Australia‘s Indigenous Voice to Parliament has been slammed as a ‘joke’ and a ‘farce’ after less than 10 per cent of those eligible cast a ballot, meaning some candidates were elected with only six votes.
Out of the 27,534 Indigenous people on the electoral roll in South Australia, only 2,748 votes were cast for the 46 people elected out of 113 candidates for the new state Voice in polling held in late March.
Despite the paltry turnout, the Labor state government headed by Peter Malinauskas declared the election a ‘success’ as it prepares to spend $10.3million on the advisory body over the next four years.
Crowds gathered outside South Australia’s parliament in Adelaide when the Voice laws were passed in March
Voice members will receive stipends from $3,000 to $18,000, sitting fees of $206 per meeting plus travel, accommodation and meal allowances.
They will also each be given $1,000 for a new laptop.
The role of the Voice is to advise on legislation concerning Indigenous people and to flag concerns from the different communities represented but it does not have to stick solely to Aboriginal matters.
To elect the initial 46 members the state was split into six regions and there were quotas on how many male and female representatives could be elected for each one.
The six local Voices will choose two representatives to be on the 12-member Voice to South Australia’s parliament.
Unlike the proposed federal Voice, which failed to gather sufficient support at October’s national referendum, the state version has no constitutional recognition meaning it can be scrapped by a simple parliamentary vote.
South Australian Liberal Senator Alex Antic called on the Malinauskas government to do just that in federal parliament last week.
‘Despite the fact that over 64 per cent of South Australians rejected the Federal Voice to Parliament, SA Labor forged ahead with a legislated state Voice,’ Senator Antic said.
‘A minuscule voter turnout out and a cost to taxpayers of $10.3million over the next four years make this a completely pointless exercise.
‘The SA Voice is an irrelevant bureaucratic farce which needs to be repealed.’
Senator Antic predicted the body would feature ‘highly paid bureaucrats going to team meetings with PowerPoint presentations and a raft of clever buzzwords’.
‘I suspect there will be a lot acknowledgments of country and requests for government funding and not much else,’ he said.
![South Australia's Labor government, headed by Premier Peter Malinauskas (pictured) has declared the Voice election a 'success'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/02/06/83137479-13262125-image-a-5_1712036808126.jpg)
South Australia’s Labor government, headed by Premier Peter Malinauskas (pictured) has declared the Voice election a ‘success’
Leading No campaigner Warren Mundine also labelled the new body a ‘joke’ and a ‘farce’.
‘These Labor premiers and chief ministers – they are just pushing this line … that Aboriginal people want these things,’ he told Sky News interviewer Andrew Bolt on Monday.
‘The whole thing is a farce.
‘Aboriginal people just want to get on with their lives, they are proud of their Aboriginality, proud of who they are. They just want jobs and education.
‘Why they are spending all this money on these things that Aboriginal people don’t even want.’
Mr Mundine said that rather than address real issues plaguing Indigenous communities such as crime, substance abuse and joblessness, the Voice was an example of ‘virtue signalling that makes it look like we are doing something’.
He said the real key to improving the lives of Indigenous people was starting businesses to provide employment. ‘Stop this nonsense with things that have never worked in the past and will never work,’ he said.
‘They keep bringing it (the Voice) back. They are like zombies – you think you have stabbed them and they keep coming back at you.
‘How can you call yourself a representative on six votes?’
South Australian Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kyam Maher downplayed the low turnout saying it was ‘a successful first election’.
‘More than 2,000 First Nations South Australians cast their vote for the SA First Nations Voice to Parliament in a successful first election,’ Mr Maher said in a statement.
![Leading No campaigner against the federal Voice Warren Mundine was not impressed with the SA version](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/02/23/83137481-13262125-Leading_No_campaigner_against_the_federal_Voice_Warren_Mundine_w-a-1_1712096132140.jpg)
Leading No campaigner against the federal Voice Warren Mundine was not impressed with the SA version
‘This strong first result provides a platform for the Voice to grow from, particularly with future elections coinciding with regular state elections.
‘This is also in line with range of votes cast in South Australian elections for the former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in the 1990s.’
Successful candidate for the Central Region, April Lawrie, told the ABC the federal Voice referendum result caused a lot of uncertainty for the state body.
While Ms Lawrie admitted a ‘lot of work to do in terms of the promotion of this’, she asked that the Voice be ‘given a chance’ and believed it would ‘pick up momentum’.
‘It’s the first one. Give our community mob an opportunity to see how this goes,’ she said.
‘Once our community are informed and are engaged with the Voice concept and the reality that it’s here, this is our opportunity to now, as a collective and representative Voice, work out ways in which we spread that information.’
Ms Lawrie said she was ‘really thrilled’ to become an elected representative.
‘It’s quite significant all around because I think for South Australia we’re the first jurisdiction to create … a First Nations Voice,’ she said.
Crowds gathered outside the South Australian parliament to welcome the creation of the Voice when it was approved in March of last year.