Demonstrators rally at Parliament House on 26 January 2021 to protest Australia's dispossession and mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Photo: Tom Fearon/ANU
Scholars from The Australian National University (ANU) College of Law have joined more than 40 Australian public law experts in a formal submission to the Federal Government urging the enshrinement of an Indigenous Voice in the Constitution.
Led by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Faculty of Law, the submission has been made as part of the Indigenous Voice Co-Design Process.
Enshrining a representative First Nations voice in the Constitution was one of three reforms supported by Indigenous leaders in the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2017.
ANU public law scholars (l to r): Associate Professors Ryan Goss, Ron Levy and Matthew Zagor.
In their submission, the group of public law experts argues: “It is our strong and unanimous view that for the Voice to have legitimacy, to achieve its objectives and perform its functions, it must be constitutionally enshrined.”
The recent statement was endorsed by three ANU College of Law public law scholars: Associate Professor Ryan Goss, Associate Professor Ron Levy and Associate Professor Matthew Zagor.