The revised edition of An Indigenous Voice to Parliament: Considering a constitutional bridge is Frank Brennan’s urgent contribution to this important national debate. I value his contribution, though I question some of his opinions and emphases. Fr Frank Brennan SJ is a rare beast. He simultaneously operates both as a citizen at the highest levels and within the community of ordinary Australians. I have personally witnessed him doing this in Parliament House and in parish halls.
Frank, a white Jesuit, has every right to have his say on this topic. This book details his long involvement since his time as an advisor to the Queensland bishops in 1982. He has done the hard yards. Made AO in 1995 for services to Indigenous Australians, particularly as an advocate in the areas of law, social justice, and reconciliation. His 2015 book was called No Small Change: the road to recognition for Indigenous Australia. His membership of high -level committees, appointed by various governments is well-known.
Frank’s contribution is multifarious. Not just in this book but much else: submissions, letters to leaders, lobbying in the halls of power, and talks in parishes and schools. The endpiece suggests that he is ‘happy to assist any local groups wanting to enhance their understanding of Indigenous constitutional recognition’. Not a week goes by in which Frank is not talking or writing about this subject. He is everywhere; a rare insider/outsider in public discussions.
It strikes me more than I expected it would that this is also an extremely personal book and sometimes clearly painful. Frank knows those he quotes intimately in most instances. His ongoing and often personal disagreements with Noel Pearson and Marcia Langton are documented. He also quotes his dear late father, former Chief Justice Gerard Brennan and dedicates the book to him, a man ‘who cared passionately and thought carefully about the legal recognition of the entitlements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.’
Despite having a thick skin and long political involvement, this book shows that he has been deeply affected both by the cause and by the accompanying personal criticism. I respect his determination to keep up the fight for what he stands for. He titles the first chapter, it is ‘A task for every conscientious citizen.’ But Frank is no ordinary citizen.
Frank has been a Christian in the public square for more than 40 years. He is probably the most widely read and widely heard ‘Catholic’ voice about this Indigenous Voice to Parliament. In church circles his voice is regularly magnified, for instance by parish and diocesan publications, and by CathNews, the official organ of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
'Frank wishes for a process for this referendum of a considerably higher quality than our country manages when conducting its ‘business as usual’: less partisan, less confrontational, more civilised, more open, the high road rather than the low road. Many of us join him in these aspirations. The community too would welcome them.'
He references the Pope and the Plenary Council decree in support of the Uluru Statement. Pope Francis calls for ‘an authentic faith’ which ‘always involves a deep desire to change the world to leave this earth better than we found it.’
Frank offers 10 steps for Australian Christians.They include advice such as to be respectful and attentive, listen to Indigenous people, inform others, and have skin in the game.
I would go even further and call out ad hominem attacks, wild exaggeration, wilful misrepresentation, bad faith, and lies. I would also urge all of us to get involved in local ‘kitchen table’ discussions and in the major campaigns. I would urge Christian leaders to get passionate and stand up in a way that few have done so far.
The starting point for me is that First Nations Peoples have a ‘special place’ per se. It is not just because they need a voice more than others because of their vulnerability or because they are on the bottom of the socio-economic pile (which they are!), but because they are historically special and ‘first’ in a post-colonial society like Australia. This special place is not emphasised enough, perhaps because even ‘Yes’ advocates are nervous about doing so.
Two different things run through this book which must be distinguished in all our discussions but often are not. They are what is right and appropriate in designing the Voice and what has the best chance of success in a referendum. Frank’s book intersperses the two. He demonstrates, for instance, how previous Liberal PMs and senior Coalition leaders have judged the Voice to be ‘neither desirable or capable of winning acceptance’. Frank advocates his own ‘best’ proposal, while also advising on what might win majority support of Australians.
He writes in a new epilogue:
I worry that a ‘Yes’ vote might not carry because of the deficiencies in the process for general community consultation and input and because the proposed formula of words will be too broad, risking the clogging of the workings of government and ongoing litigation in the High Court.
On the point of winning majority support, he disputes the relevance of the positive 2017 same sex marriage result for this referendum. I’m not sure that he is correct about this comparison, especially among younger voters.
He is also strong on the need for political bipartisanship as the basis for success. Yet he admits that he has ‘failed completely’ and that his discussions with the government and the former shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, Julian Leeser, elicited ‘no significant interest from either side’. His new epilogue is titled ‘The Failed Quest for Bipartisanship on the Voice’.
The Yes and No camps are now fixed in stone. Government versus Opposition. Yes and No committees. This makes the parliamentary joint committee proceedings almost irrelevant. A few individuals might change their positions, but the big camps will not. Leeser says that he will vote Yes despite his reservations. So will Frank, I presume.
Unlike the measured tone of this book, the broader public campaign has predictably taken the ‘low road’. I believe that the No side is most to blame for that; but the Yes side has not been free of blame.
It depends on which you think is worse. Ad hominem attacks? Equally split. Wild exaggeration? The Opposition is more guilty. Lies and bad faith? Ditto. Partisanship? Both sides.
While the ‘experts’ and ‘insiders’, like Frank, have argued about the detail, the early campaigning has mostly been about the bigger picture. The same is true when this book reproduces the arguments of the campaigners other than the lawyers.
Yes case:
- Indigenous dispossession
- Accepting the invitation from Indigenous people
- Closing the Gap
No case:
- Divisive
- Racist (in the legal sense)
The range of possible positions ranges from Yes, Yes More, and Yes But, to Conservative No and Progressive No. There are hardened voters (58 per cent) and soft voters (41 per cent) with more Yes than No in both categories (32 per cent and 26 per cent respectively (Essential Poll 18 April 2023).
Bipartisanship is dear to Frank’s heart, and he blames both leaders for its absence; but that horse has bolted. It is an ideal aim; but are we still in a bipartisan world? Perhaps other leaders, like state premiers, teal independents, Greens; Ken Wyatt, Fred Chaney and Leeser, matter more than they once did.
Further questions remain. Youth/millennials? The younger generations may outweigh the older generations as they did in the 2022 federal election. Persuasiveness of the campaigns? Albanese versus Dutton. Burney versus Price. The government is popular; the opposition is not. How much racism exists in the community? How ‘unloved’, in Pearson’s terminology, are Indigenous Australians? Do enough Australians believe First Nations deserve special constitutional treatment or is that ‘divisive’?
Frank writes: ‘This cause is just. The going will be tough. This book tries to make a contribution to the cause and to making the journey easier.’
Among the millions of words written and spoken about the Voice where does Frank sit? Based on this book and his other comments is that he sits roughly where Leeser sits (or vice versa), not with Wyatt or Chaney; not with the government and Aboriginal leaders; certainly not with Peter Dutton either.
This book is one important slice of the debate around the shaping by experts of the Voice and the referendum question. Not so much about broader community discussion. It is a ‘what’s more likely to be successful’ book and a ‘what’s best for the country’ book, rather than a ‘how to vote’ book.
Finally, it is a ‘Poor Fellow My Country’ book as in the new epilogue. It is written in a sad frame of mind as Frank regards the process as ‘more messy and divisive than any of us had hoped’. He says, ‘the tragedy I am wanting to avoid is a “No” vote carried because of flaws in the process resulting in a lack of time for real community engagement and for proper legal advice.’
Like Xavier Herbert, Frank laments for the Australia that he thought could have been; an Australia that could reconcile the dispossession of its Indigenous people and throw off its colonial past.
Essentially, Frank wishes for a process for this referendum of a considerably higher quality than our country manages when conducting its ‘business as usual’: less partisan, less confrontational, more civilised, more open, the high road rather than the low road. Many of us join him in these aspirations. The community too would welcome them.
However, the landscape of Australian politics is littered with recent examples of political campaigns, like the 2017 postal survey on marriage equality and the 2019 and 2022 federal elections, which fell well short of these aspirations. Those leaders, those media and those members of the community who participated in these negative examples haven’t changed.
Against all the evidence so far, however, I hope that Australia will rise to the occasion in this referendum. Frank does too.
John Warhurst is an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University and was a member of the Plenary Council.
This article is based on his speech to launch the revised edition of Frank Brennan's book, An Indigenous Voice to Parliament, at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture in Canberra on 1 May 2023. Listen to Frank Brennan's response to John’s speech here: https://soundcloud.com/frank-brennan-6/accc-book-launch
Main image: Still from Joint Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice Referendum Committee, 1 May 2023. (Parliament of Australia).