Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In my view, land councils and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations are already subject to high levels of scrutiny and accountability. But I would also contend that, if you want to see that oversight of organisations by government and government controlled agencies improved, a good way of doing that is to support a voice to parliament so that Indigenous people right around Australia can critique organisations and have their own input through these institutions and through a voice, telling the government what they expect in terms of our oversight function. Frankly, I don't want to get in the middle of some of the family debates inside Indigenous organisations that are really highly local. You might want to bring in personal family and other issues. I've seen attempts to do that.

No, sorry. I'll withdraw if you took that as a personal imputation. I did not mean it that way.

What I'm trying to say is we do need robust governance. We need scrutiny from First Nations people who are able to bring their voice to this place, to our parliamentary committees, and tell us what kind of oversight they want for these organisations. For example, we are yet to debate, should the Voice be successful, what kinds of powers a Voice to Parliament might have. We may well decide to give it powers so that it has some direct scrutiny over these organisation.

Well, you won't get to decide if you don't participate, Senator Thorpe. We might, in consultation with First Nations people, decide—