So where is the detail then?

I said earlier that detail about how the Voice will work on a day-to-day basis doesn’t belong in the Constitution. But that doesn’t mean there’s no detail at all. So where is it?

The authors of the Uluṟu Statement have got a whole chunk of detail on their website, called the Design Principles. It describes what they want the Voice to be. For example, they don’t want Parliament to appoint anyone to the Voice – people should be chosen by their regional community. And they want term limits, so that the people who do get chosen to represent a group can be held accountable by that group. It’s a good read, it’s all very sensible I reckon.

But we’re not guaranteed to get exactly what they asked for, even if we get a Yes in the referendum. That’s because the Albanese government will have to write some legislation to set it all up, and get it passed through Parliament. So if the referendum passes, then we’ll have to put pressure on the Prime Minister to make sure he creates the Voice in a way that’s actually useful.

If he starts playing silly buggers and his legislation isn’t what people want, then we’ll have to make a fuss and push the Coalition and the Greens and the independents to stop it. Then we’d have to negotiate new legislation. And anytime there’s a normal election, a party could campaign on changes they’d make if they get enough seats in Parliament.

So far, it looks like Albo is happy to actually set up the Voice the way the Uluru Statement group want. We should keep an eye on him though, he’s just a politician after all.

But the detail will always end up in the legislation, not the Constitution. Remember that that’s how it works for stuff like the High Court and all the states too. We can’t get rid of them, but we can change how they work if we like.