Today Australia’s Productivity Commission released their scathing annual report on the lack of progress and multiple failings in Closing the Gap in inequality experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (Guardian Australia (2024), Closing the Gap will fail without ‘fundamental change’, scathing report finds).
This is the anti-Voice landscape we now live in.
Indigenous disadvantage, conditions and health outcomes not improving. Governments criticised for not listening or incorporating knowledgeable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the process.
It’s disappointing to see the ongoing failure in this report. What’s more disappointing is an identified strategy in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament took aim at resolving some of these issues, but not given a chance.
For those who said A Voice would achieve nothing, well, doing nothing new has achieved nothing also.