Recognition of First Nations Activism - Academics to the Fore, page-21

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    THE “VOICE” IS ALREADY IN PLACE
    niaa.gov.au

    https://www.niaa.gov.au/

    Main office is located in Canberra at the following address: Charles Perkins House, 16 Bowes Place, Woden ACT 2606
    This is the web site every Australian should be aware of. This is the web site of the National Indigenous Australians Agency. This is a government funded body tasked with improving the lives of Aboriginal Australians, to advise government on ways and means to do this. You can read their mission statement and you will discover a very simple truth, their role is exactly the same as the proposed VOICE to parliament. This body is not new. It has been using public funds for some time, to do exactly what the VOICE is now proposed to do.

    This is not a little back office, government funded sideshow. This organisation has some 1,300 employees, it has offices all over Australia and more importantly the cost to the taxpayer of this organisation last year was over 4 BILLION dollars. Before we vote for a new version of the NIAA we are entitled to ask a few questions of our government.
    What is the material difference between the VOICE and the NIAA?
    What are actual differences this body has made to all aboriginals?
    Will the VOICE replace the NIAA or be in addition to?
    How can the VOICE do better than the NIAA and the 4 BILLION dollars they spend in a year.
    If the NIAA was doing it’s job the VOICE would not even be a discussion.
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    According to the NIAA website it was set up/signed off in 2019 with these purposes:
    “The National Indigenous Australians Agency was established by an Executive Order signed by the Governor-General on 29 May 2019. The Executive Order gives the NIAA a number of functions, including:
    • to lead and coordinate Commonwealth policy development, program design and implementation and service delivery for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
    • to provide advice to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Indigenous Australians on whole-of-government priorities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
    • to lead and coordinate the development and implementation of Australia’s Closing the Gap targets in partnership with Indigenous Australians; and
    • to lead Commonwealth activities to promote reconciliation.”

 
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