Everything You Need to Know About the Voice

In late 2023 Australians will vote in a referendum on enshrining an Indigenous Voice to parliament and government in the Constitution. What benefits will the Voice bring? And what was the journey to this point? Everything You Need to Know About the Voice, written by co-author of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, Cobble Cobble woman Megan Davis, and fellow constitutional expert George Williams is essential reading on the Voice to parliament and government, how our Constitution was drafted, what the 1967 referendum achieved, and the Uluru Statement. It charts the journey of this nation-building reform from the earliest stages of Indigenous advocacy and, importantly, explains how the Voice offers change that will benefit the whole nation.

Megan Davis is a Cobble Cobble woman from south-west Queensland. She is the Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law, Director of the Indigenous Law Centre at UNSW Law and Pro Vice Chancellor at UNSW. She designed the regional dialogue method that led to the consensus at Uluru on 26 May 2017 and read the Uluru Statement from the Heart to the national convention and then the Australian public for the first time. She is the leading constitutional lawyer on Indigenous constitutional recognition and advises the Australian government as a member of its Indigenous Referendum Working Group. George Williams AO is the Anthony Mason Professor and a Scientia Professor, as well as a Deputy Vice Chancellor, at UNSW. His books including Australian Constitutional Law and Theory, The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia and Human Rights Under the Australian Constitution. He has appeared as a barrister in the High Court of Australia and is a columnist for The Australian. He serves as a member of the Australian government's Constitutional Expert Group advising on the wording of the Voice referendum. He is also the co-author, with Harry Hobbs, of How to Rule Your Own Country.

Introduction Timeline 1 Making the Constitution 2 The 1967 referendum 3 A new era? 4 The journey to recognition 6 The Referendum Council and Uluru process 7 Voice, Treaty, Truth 8 The Voice to Parliament 9 The Voice Referendum Appendix 1: Uluru Statement from the Heart Appendix 2: Section 128 of the Australian Constitution Acknowledgments Notes Index