Uluru statement architect had second thoughts over referendum

By PETER ROWE

Monday October 14 marks a year since the Voice referendum failed to garner enough votes.

And one of the architects of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, law expert Megan Davis, has told the ABC she was open to not proceeding with a vote when polls showed it would fail last year.

Professor Davis said on the Insiders podcast the campaign didn’t have enough time to educate the public on what the Voice was all about.

“If the prime minister and others had really definitive information that it was going to lose, we were concerned with why that would proceed, given that it was apparent we didn’t have enough time to prosecute the case,” Ms Davis told the ABC’s David Speers.

“To educate the Australian people on what a Voice was, but more importantly, not so much about the Voice, but this decade-long advocacy, multi-partisan process for constitutional recognition.”

Professor Davis said she still believes in what the Voice campaign stood for, but added misinformation played an “acute” role in its ultimate failure.

The constitutional law expert said she was now uncertain as to where the Albanese government now stood on the issue.

“The Makarrata Commission did go through their (Labor) policy conference, and it was part of their election platform,” she said.

“So, you know, that would be a broken election promise.”

The Uluru Statement called for a Voice to Parliament to be enshrined in the constitution.

It also called for a Makarrata Commission to oversee “a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations people.

But with the Albanese government in danger of losing their majority in the House of Representatives at the next Federal election, there is little chance of implementation soon.