Before the end of 2023, Australians will be asked to vote on the inclusion of a First Nations Voice to Parliament in our Constitution. This referendum will be the culmination of a decades-old debate regarding how best to provide Constitutional recognition to First Nations.

The referendum looks to be fraught affair, not least because the Voice to Parliament is a novel idea that requires us to consider the role of advocacy, citizen participation and the traditionally opaque executive function of our federal Government.

I didn’t know where I sat on the substance of the issue, so I decided to use the annual essay competition The Writing Prize run by Future Leaders as an opportunity to delve into the history and evolution of the Voice and form an informed opinion.

The prompt for this years’ competition was: “Why is ‘A Voice to Parliament’ important and how will it be of benefit to Australia.” I decided to do my research and submit if I truly believed, on balance, there was a good case for supporting the Voice.

As it turns out, there are four excellent reasons to support the Voice on purely pragmatic grounds. My essay ‘Four arguments for the Voice’ won the competition, for which I am very grateful. I hope it can add a little to the debate.

The essay can be viewed in full here.

Image credit: Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, 1900: Original Public Record Copy