The millions being spent on encouraging Australians to vote to change the Constitution should, instead, be directly spent on helping Indigenous communities, says former NBA player Andrew Bogut.
His comments come as reports emerge of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese personally lobbying the country’s sporting leagues to back the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which will effectively shrine an “Indigenous advisory body” into the Constitution.
Bogut said the seven sporting organisations involved in the campaign were “bowing to the government” because they were afraid of losing funding.
“We saw it with COVID and elections. Sporting organisations and clubs have to bow to the government and promote these causes because they know if they don’t, the government won’t give them grants for stadiums, facilities, and junior expansion,” he told The Epoch Times.
“I think it’s blatant ’sportswashing,' whether you agree with the Voice or not, I don’t think it should be promoted through sport,” he added.
“I would argue all the money being spent on the Voice, promoting the legislation, and [money for] the lawyers who have to write it—that money would do much better to go to actual Indigenous communities and build sporting facilities. Actually, have some nice things in those communities that young kids can aspire to.”
Bogut cited the situation in Alice Springs, the central Australian town now wreaked by a youth crime wave caused by a combination of alcohol abuse, domestic violence, and broken homes.
Prime Minister Gets Sporting Codes Onboard
Labor Prime Minister Albanese is working with the Australian Football League (AFL), National Rugby League (NRL), Netball Australia, Football Australia, Cricket Australia, and Tennis Australia on a coordinated campaign that will be launched later in 2023.This year, Australians will go to vote on whether to embed an Indigenous Voice to Parliament into the Australian Constitution.
The main thrust of the campaign is for an Indigenous “advisory body” to be set up and advise on bills going through the federal Parliament. Yet further details of how much power this body will are yet to be determined.
Well-known sporting stars Adam Goodes from the AFL, and Johnathan Thurston from the NRL, have been earmarked as potential ambassadors. Both have expressed support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the Voice in the past.
Jim Reed, the pollster at Resolve, said bringing the seven sporting codes on board could bolster the campaign with expectations the NRL could help turn the tide in Queensland, which has been the “least positive” about changing the Constitution.
No Campaign Questions Whether Extra Bureaucracy Will Help
Meanwhile, Gary Johns, former Labor minister and now-member of the campaign against the Voice, “Recognise a Better Way,” questioned whether an extra bureaucratic body—on top of an already burgeoning Indigenous advocacy industry—would help struggling communities.“These people [in sports] ought to ask themselves, do they understand what they’re supporting? Do they really think that they’re going to help Aboriginal people in strife by having a whole big new bureaucracy in Canberra,” he told The Epoch Times.
“Sport itself is a wonderful vehicle to help kids. So why don’t they just get on and do what they’re good at, which is helping kids through sport and get right out of the politics?” he said.
