Anthony Albanese’s Indigenous Voice to Parliament slammed by Megan Krakouer

A leading Aboriginal activist has blasted Labor’s proposed Voice to Parliament as being meaningless to impoverished Indigenous communities.

Outspoken lawyer Megan Krakouer, Perth’s Citizen of the Year 2023, says the Voice will be irrelevant, powerless and toothless with ‘no guarantee of change’.

She says outback communities don’t have any idea what it even is, and in its proposed form, she warns it will be unable to do anything to help them.

‘They will say, “What voice? John Farnham the voice? Or The Voice the TV show”,’ said the director of the National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project.

‘I say, “No, the Voice to Parliament.” They say, “Oh, we don’t know anything about that “.’

Megan Krakouer says outback communities (pictured) don’t have any idea what it even is, and in its proposed form, she warns it will be unable to do anything to help them

Ms Krakouer said she is set to campaign against the Voice because it lacked the power to actually bring any change to the people she represents.

The Voice is set to be able to advise Parliament and the government on affairs that directly affect Australia’s First Nations people.

But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has stressed that it will have no right of veto over any legislation.

‘I want to see something with teeth, I want to see legislative change and I want to see policy which protects the interests of all Australians and particularly First Nations peoples,’ Ms Krakouer told The West Australian.

‘It is going to be the highest consultative body of Indigenous First Nations people across the country…with no power whatsoever. Sure, it may have the ability to influence, but we are still unclear on the details on how that will actually play out right across the country.’

She added: ‘I walk with thousands of our most impoverished brothers and sisters. I have seen premature and avoidable death haunt every single one of these families.

‘I know that I will be speaking for many of them, and they will agree with what I am calling for, Is it so wrong to ask for the Voice to be more and with ‘teeth’ so that fewer of my people fall over early and unfairly?’

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has stressed that it will have no right of veto over any legislation but Megan Krakouer says that makes it powerless and irrelevant

Ms Krakouer said she was prepared to admit she was wrong if proved otherwise, but said her experience had made her cynical about the government’s motives.

She added: ‘For all my working life I have never known a government that I can trust, and I feel it is my duty to hold to account what is promised here.’

She wants the money being spent on the Voice and the referendum campaign to instead be diverted directly into Indigenous issues like suicide prevention and child care.