Candidates hopeful SA Voice to Parliament can make a difference, despite national referendum result

Elections for a state-based body in South Australia are underway with the first SA voice to be officially in place, later this month.

Transcript

00:00 From Port Augusta through the Flinders Ranges and to the east of the state is one of six

00:07 regions, part of an electoral boundary style system that will form the state's first voice

00:15 to parliament.

00:17 We're still here and we're still going to continue to bring these issues that affect

00:22 our people and our country to the table.

00:28 With Australia's First Nations voice passed parliament last year, it means the SA voice

00:33 now exists in state laws, not the constitution, as proposed by last year's failed referendum

00:39 to establish a voice at the national level. Candidates say the result of that referendum

00:45 had a deep impact on their communities.

00:48 I was devastated really with the outcome because I believed in it because it was a way that

00:55 we as Aboriginal people could have a voice about the things that mattered to us.

01:00 When they said no, I was so emotional. I cried and I thought, wow, this is wrong, but hey,

01:07 we just keep fighting, don't we? So let's make it with this voice.

01:16 Levine Ntukarua is preparing an exhibition, but she's also a candidate in the Flinders

01:21 and Upper North Region. Her art tells the story of growing up on a mission outside of

01:26 Port Augusta, and she wants governments talking about the issues still facing that community.

01:32 Just on our community alone, we've had a murder, we've had suicides, and that's in the last

01:38 year that just seemed to be silent, and yet there's a crisis happening.

01:45 It's us in culture before colonisation, before everything came.

01:49 Dawn Licorises' artwork hangs in her office, telling the stories of Indigenous people forced

01:55 to walk in two worlds. She works with children and young people who she says struggle with

02:01 the balance.

02:02 Lack of culture, lack of education. It's so frightening when I see the young kids I was

02:09 working with and then thinking they're going to go, there's a big house out there, we don't

02:15 want them to go there.

02:17 Darcy Coulthard says he's tired of seeing high numbers of incarcerated Aboriginal people.

02:23 He hopes The Voice will help bring funding back to programs designed to keep people from

02:28 re-offending.

02:28 There's a lot of inmates, they spend a lot of time in jail, and even as soon as they come

02:35 out on bail, they go back in jail. But they don't learn anything.

02:45 Once established, candidates elected to The Voice will be able to speak in Parliament

02:49 on legislation and have meetings with political and departmental leaders. And while there's

02:54 hope, there's also acknowledgement it won't be the only solution to the challenges facing

03:00 Indigenous people.

03:01 It'll be good, but is it? But then I'm a bit sceptic, like, you know, when do we approach?

03:08 What would they do? Are they really going to listen to us? That's what I'd like to know.

03:14 I've heard the word 'spin-off', I've heard the word 'watered down' when it came to the

03:19 SA Voice to Parliament. But it is a different and a unique way in which we're trying to

03:24 chip at the same cornerstone.

03:26 Here in Region 3, 13 people have nominated for seven positions, while around the state,

03:32 more than 100 people have nominated.

03:35 The polls for The Voice will close on Saturday, with the results to be declared a week later.

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