State Voice to Parliament

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:16): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs a question about the State Voice to Parliament.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: The state government spent much time and much money ventilating its Voice to Parliament. It has been estimated that as much as $10 million of taxpayers' money was spent on the Voice. About 30,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were eligible to vote in the recent elections, but Electoral Commission SA figures show just 2,583 formal votes, less than 10 per cent, were received.

Further, 12 of the 46 successful candidates polled fewer than 20 first preference votes. All this occurred against the backdrop of 64 per cent of South Australians voting no at the Federal Voice referendum. Although only in its infancy, cracks are appearing in the State Voice. It seems we have no Voice to be heard as yet. My questions to the minister are:

1. What is the current status of the State Voice?

2. Have the 46 statewide representatives yet met as a collective?

3. If so, can you provide details to the Legislative Council of how many times, where, when and what was on the agenda?

4. Can you confirm that there have been resignations from members of the Voice and the reasons for them? Who are they and what regions do they represent?

5. Can you confirm there have been resignations from the Voice secretariat and the reasons given?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:17): I thank the honourable member for his question and his interest in the South Australian State Voice to Parliament. As the honourable member pointed out, there were 46 members from six different regional Local Voices elected earlier this year. I think there were 113 nominations for the 46 vacancies in the Voice.

When you compare the rate of nominations to the rate of vacancies in another body, say, the House of Assembly in this parliament, where there are 47 vacancies each election and I think there were somewhere in the order of 240 nominations, on a per capita basis Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander South Australians nominated about 2,500 per cent greater than the whole of South Australia nominated for the House of Assembly, demonstrating a very strong and clear interest in the South Australian First Nations Voice by the rate of nominations for our Voice.

The six Local Voices held their inaugural meetings during May and June 2024. In relation to all 46 members, it was very early on after their election that they first came together for an inauguration and to talk about administrative processes. In fact, from memory, I think all members of this parliament were invited to meet with the members of the Voice upon their election, and I am looking around and I can see some of the members of parliament from this chamber who took up that opportunity when they met in the Balcony Room many months ago for the first time they got together; I think it was over a two-day period. I think they spent time at Government House with the Governor, and then a fair bit of time at the State Library or the Museum where they held a significant part of those initial meetings.

After that, the six Local Voices held inaugural meetings during May and June of 2024. I am advised that each Local Voice has now met for a third time, during September and October of 2024. So they are the Local Voices, and they have obviously selected their presiding members. The two presiding members from each Local Voice then make up the State First Nations Voice. They have met a number of times, and I am pleased to be able to say that the State First Nations Voice on Thursday of last week held their inaugural meeting with the South Australian cabinet, and then with CEOs, so I congratulate the State Voice on the work they have been doing.

I think the honourable member asked about resignations from the Voice secretariat. There has been a resignation from the Voice secretariat, and I will not go into details, for personal reasons to return to home where there is a sick family member. There have been, I think, in total from the 46 members four resignations since the Voice commenced, ranging from a change in circumstances in terms of a change of employment, moving out of state—various reasons for people having resigned.

I note that when you look at the 46 members of our State First Nations Voice compared to say the 47 members of the lower house of state parliament, I think we have seen at least three resignations from that body since our election, and this a body where people are paid exceptionally well and know exactly what they are getting in for, because I think all of the resignations were people who had been elected for a previous term. In fact, even in this chamber, we have seen our former colleague the Hon. Stephen Wade resign from this chamber.

We see resignations from these chambers of parliament where people know exactly what they are getting in for when they are contesting. The South Australian Voice is a new concept where, quite frankly, it is the first of its kind in this nation and people, quite rightly, are still finding their feet, notwithstanding the number of meetings that are being held and the work that has been happening.

There have been, from memory, at least two different pieces of legislation that the First Nations Voice has provided commentary on; I think a preventative health bill and then an education bill. I think there was extensive discussion in the lower house of this place with the education minister about the First Nations Voice input into that particular piece of legislation. So I am very pleased to see the First Nations Voice already contributing on bills and other areas.

I note the honourable member talked about turnout. For eligible voters, I can't remember the exact figure, it is somewhere in the twenty thousands when you take into consideration the disproportionately large number of Aboriginal people who are not on the electoral roll. The turnout was somewhere in the order of 10 per cent, which I think was fairly equivalent to the turnout that happened the fourth time there were ATSIC elections back in the 1990s, and similar to, if not greater, than the turnout for different forms, but representative bodies, in the ACT and Victoria.

When you look at the fraction of the possible vote that some people got elected to a Voice, all of them were orders of magnitude more than the votes, quite frankly, that some members of this chamber get elected to on first preference numbers.