An Indigenous leader has slammed the Voice to parliament and is proposing that Aboriginal people create their own independent state.
Michael Mansell, a Palawa activist and lawyer, believes that in order to form an independent state, land should return to First Nations people.
The state would be overseen by an Aboriginal government and would possess the same governing powers as the other states.
In an interview on the SBS program The Point: Referendum Roadtrip, Mr Mansell said that people needed to listen and not create another advisory body.
“We don’t need another body. We just need people to listen to what we’re saying,” he said.
“Return the land to the Indigenous people and allow us to form our own Aboriginal government that’s part of the constitution, and we have the same powers as the state government.
“But how can you get that discussion going when you’re talking about some stupid advisory body called a Voice?”
Mr Mansell first touted his seventh state idea to the ABC back in 2017. Mr Mansell had said that the proposal wouldn’t be bending or altering any rules.
“Providing for a predominantly Aboriginal inhabited or dominated state would not alter the rules. It is applying the rules,” he said.
Federal parliament has the power to take territory out of existing states to create new ones, thanks to the Australian constitution.
The proposal would look to take large tracts of land already owned by Aboriginal people.
Mr Mansell was contacted for comment.
Mr Mansell isn’t the only person proposing the idea of a seventh state.
The North Queensland Alliance has argued that money coming from mining is not being invested into North and Central Queensland, but is unfairly distributed to Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Alliance president Peter Raffles told the Courier Mail that the current federation doesn’t work and that those outside of Brisbane are getting the short end of the stick.
“Federation as it stands is not working as well as it should and for the people who live in this part of the world, the numbers from economic output through agriculture and resources are clear standouts while the challenges around health for example are not going to be well served by a one-size-fits-all approach out of Brisbane,” he said.
There are even calls for New Zealand to become an Australian state, with former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce backing the move.
And while the Nationals MP acknowledges that the Kiwis wouldn’t go for it, he believes that Australia should still “put it out there”.
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“We could help them out with the cricket. They can help us out with rugby,” he said.
“Logically, why do we have two defence Forces and two different monetary policies? It should be a single policy.
“It was supposed to happen. We can bring them in without a referendum. It is part of the constitution.”
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