PointsBet Australian brand ambassador Shaquille O’Neal has met with Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to discuss their proposal for a Voice to Parliament.
This comes as Minister Burney met with the Joint Council on Closing Gap last week. The latest data from the Productivity Commission indicates that that the rates of suicide, incarceration and children in out-of-home care have risen for First Nations people.
“Why is Labor talking to American celebrities about advisory bodies, when we’ve got First Nations people dying in custody?” Said Senator Lidia Thorpe, the Greens spokesperson for First Nations and DjabWurrung, Gunnai and Gunditjmara woman.
Senator Lidia Thorpe, the Greens spokesperson for First Nations said:
“We have the solutions. We’ve had the solutions for decades and Labor is ignoring them. Want to prevent First Nations people from going to jail in the first place? Implement the recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
“Approximately 40% of the Commission’s recommendations are about social factors: education, health, employment, housing and land rights. Implementing these recommendations will save peoples lives, before any referendum.
“You don’t need a Voice to Parliament to tell us that the recommendations from a 31 year old Royal Commission needs to be urgently implemented, to reduce the incarceration of our people.
“Labor needs to stop tinkering around the edges with new so-called solutions. I’m seeing a lot of time and energy being put towards laying out a pathway to the Voice, while neglecting work that is decades overdue.
“This is not the first time Labor has been in Government and ignored the self-determined solutions our old people gave them, in favour of photo ops. Is this a Government that takes Blak Lives Matter seriously? Will they implement the remaining recommendations? Clock’s ticking, Labor.”