If Anthony Albanese, current prime minister, is in support of and vowed to install the Indigenous Voice advisory board, why can’t he just do it? He also made a comment beforehand that he would respect people’s decision if they vote no, implying that he might be able to override it if he wanted to.
"the PM on Sunday said Labor would “respect the response of Australians next Saturday”.
“If Australians vote no, I don’t believe that it would be appropriate to then go and say, ‘Oh, well, you’ve had your say, but we’re going to legislate anyway’.”
I personally believe that what white Australians want is irrelevant to the fundamental rights that the original owners of this land deserve, and he should have just done it if he was able to.
A couple of things. First of all, the advisory body itself was only part of what was requested (remember that the request itself came from Indigenous Australians, not politicians). Constitutional recognition and an enshrined Voice was the request (along with treaty and truth telling), and a pretty simple one at that. It would have been condescending if the government had rejected that request and instead proposed to legislate only the Voice. This entire process was about listening to Indigenous Australians, not about government ignoring them and acting in its own best interests. This is a big part of the reason why the referendum went ahead despite poor polling.
Secondly, the Voice advisory body was a very safe, conservative-friendly proposal designed to get some movement on the issues of reconciliation and Indigenous sovereignty. It is not necessarily representative of what Indigenous Australians would actually want in a perfect world. So the argument that it should have just been legislated because Indigenous Australians should get whatever they want/deserve is flawed, because if we were to take that approach then alternative models like devolved self-governance should have been on the table too. They weren’t, because realistically Indigenous Australians make up just 3% of the population and are forced to rely on the goodwill and support of the other 97% in these matters.