South Australia establishes First Nations Voice to parliament - here's how much ... trends now
South Australia's Indigenous Voice to parliament has been slammed as a 'joke' and a 'farce' after less than 10 per cent of those eligible cast a ballot, meaning some candidates were elected with only six votes.
Out of the 27,534 Indigenous people on the electoral roll in South Australia, only 2,748 votes were cast for the 46 people elected out of 113 candidates for the new state Voice in polling held in late March.
Despite the paltry turnout the Labor state government headed by Peter Malinauskas declared the election a 'success' as it prepares to spend $10.3million on the advisory body over the next four years.
Crowds gathered outside South Australia's parliament in Adelaide when the Voice laws were passed in March
Voice members will receive stipends from $3,000 to $18,000, sitting fees of $206 per meeting plus travel, accommodation and meal allowances.
They will also each be given $1,000 for a new laptop.
The role of the Voice is to advise on legislation concerning Indigenous people and to flag concerns from the different communities represented but it does not have to stick solely to Aboriginal matters.
To elect the initial 46 members the state was split into six regions and there were quotas on how many male and female representatives could be elected for each one.
The six local Voices will choose two representatives to be on the 12-member Voice to South Australia's parliament.
Unlike the proposed federal Voice, which failed to gather sufficient support at October's national referendum, the state version has no constitutional recognition meaning it can be scrapped by a simple parliamentary vote.
South Australian Liberal Senator Alex Antic called on the Malinauskas government to do just that in federal parliament last week.
'Despite the fact that over 64 per cent of South Australians rejected the Federal Voice to Parliament, SA Labor forged ahead with a legislated state Voice,' Senator Antic said.
'A minuscule voter turnout out and a cost to taxpayers of $10.3million over the next four years make this a completely pointless exercise.
'The SA Voice is an irrelevant bureaucratic farce which needs to be repealed.'
Senator Antic predicted the body would feature 'highly paid bureaucrats going to team meetings with PowerPoint presentations and a raft of clever buzzwords'.
'I suspect there will be a lot acknowledgments of country and requests for government funding and not much else,' he
