Has the South Australian Voice Already Failed? By James Reed

The position taken by Ben Hood MLC, Shadow Assistant Minister for regional South Australia, is that the state Voice has already failed. He notes that the results for the South Australian Voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders have been announced. Only 10 percent of this group voted, an appalling 2,583 votes. Some candidates were elected with only six votes, and some candidates got no votes, not even a vote by themselves, for themselves. So, the South Australian parliament will be obliged to consider the dictates of members who only hold office by six votes.

I agree that in terms of conventional politics, this is an utter failure of democracy, but the Voice was never about democracy, but an agenda by the elites for increased power. No doubt we will see this exercised through the Voice third chamber of parliament, in South Australia. But at least it is not in the constitution, and can be removed when the liberals obtain power, after the true disaster of the Voice concept has been seen across the states.

The Ben Hood email follows:

Dear ……,

This evening, the final results for the South Australian State Voice were announced.

After all Labor's publicity and millions of dollars of taxpayer money wasted, only 10% of South Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people cast a vote.

In fact, across the entire State, only 2583 votes were cast. Some candidates were elected with as few as six votes. Three candidates did not receive a single vote, showing they could not even be bothered to vote for themselves.

The Premier of this State persisted with and implemented this State-based Voice without any electoral mandate despite the clear opposition of a substantial majority of South Australians.

In October 2023, 64% of South Australians voted against the Federal Voice. Now, 90% of indigenous South Australians have refused to cast a vote for their State Voice.

Like its Federal counterpart, the State Voice has now shown itself to be a complete failure, for which Premier Malinauskas and the Labor Party bear full responsibility.

Those elected to the Voice, on a mandate of as few as six votes, now wield extraordinary powers over the Parliament of South Australia, elected to represent more than 1.7 million South Australians.

This is an utter scandal.

Despite the wishes of the vast majority of South Australians, the Premier of this State has transferred significant legislative power to a tiny minority of vested interests and activists without any democratic mandate.

Labor's State Voice has comprehensively failed.

The Premier must immediately introduce legislation to disband this frighteningly unrepresentative body, which even indigenous Australians have now overwhelmingly rejected.

Please visit www.dontdividesa.com.au and sign the petition.