Mundine says win for no vote more likely to lead to treaties; Walk for Yes events held around Australia

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Asked about the Indigenous Advisory Council, Mundine says the body was “just a committee” that advised the Prime Minister and Cabinet “in ways that we could improve things”. He says this body was different to the proposal for the voice which will create unnecessary bureaucracy.

Well, the difference between us and the voice, as I said, we weren’t a representative body, we were made up of all different races. And we were experts in these areas of what needed to be done … and also we weren’t in the constitution. We were totally outside that.

This is one of the problems I had, and this is one of the [reasons] why I stepped away from the Uphold & Recognise movement, was because I didn’t see – why did we have to have it in the [constitution]? Because that creates a position that [Indigenous Australians] are always going to need help and are always victims, and I didn’t agree with that.

I say treaties in the plural sense because we have to recognise Aboriginal culture. Aboriginal culture is our First Nations, and the first thing we learn about life is that one nation cannot talk about another nation’s country, only those traditional owners of those countries can talk about those countries, and therefore when you talk about like a state treaty or a national-type treaty, it doesn’t make sense in our culture.

If it is a “no” vote, that’s when the real work starts. As Jacinta said, the senator, she said we have to have accountability. We are spending billions of dollars every year and according to Closing the Gap we are still not going places. We have to deal with that.