A senior Aboriginal leader has criticised the Morrison government's "convoluted and flawed" co-design process for a Voice for Indigenous Australians.
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Pat Turner warns the proposed mechanism is doomed to fail unless shortcomings are urgently addressed.
Ms Turner, who sits on a senior advisory group providing input on the co-design, has not publicly criticised the process before.
But she has becoming increasingly unhappy with the federal government's response to the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart.
The statement contained several proposals including a constitutionally-entrenched voice to parliament on laws about Indigenous people.
The coalition government immediately rejected the idea.
"We were not and have not been heard," Ms Turner told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.
The government is instead pursuing an Indigenous voice that will not be enshrined in the constitution and is unlikely be legislated.
The process is based on advice being given to the government for it to decide on a model.
It involves the government selecting its own advisers, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, three separate committees and a senior advisory group with potentially overlapping roles.
Terms of reference impose limits on what participants can discuss.
Individuals are appointed by the government to support the minister rather than representing their constituencies, organisations or cultural groups.
Ms Turner said this immediately compromised the strength of their voices and the chance for Indigenous people to be heard.
She warned the outcome of the government-controlled process was likely to be disjointed, conflicted and counterproductive.
"Most concerning of all is the risk of considerable division arising between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in respect to the government's voice - and this is unacceptable," Ms Turner said.
"The lesson from past failures is that Indigenous people have to be able to set up their own structures to reach decisions in their own time about how they are to be represented.
"In fact, no different to anyone else in our society, not having governments decide the outcome."
Ms Turner said the government had successfully negotiated a partnership and a national agreement with community-controlled Indigenous groups on Closing the Gap targets.
"It is not happening in respect to the government-led process for establishing its voice," she said.
Australian Associated Press
