By Tom Peters, Socialist Equality Group Original url: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/04/28/ioue-a28.html The Australian Labor government will hold a referendum later this year on amending the constitution to create a new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, a body .
The Australian Labor government and some representatives of the Indigenous elite have praised the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand as a model for Australia; the treaty, first signed in 1840 during the colonisation of New Zealand, has been used over the past 30 years to enrich a narrow layer of Māori while leaving the vast majority in poverty.