Every sports organisation in Australia has announced they will support the yes vote in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum.
It comes despite warnings from Indigenous leaders that the legislation, which proposed to insert a clause into the Constitution, would divide Australians based on race instead of promoting inclusivity or unity.
In an open letter delivered on May 26 in Sydney, over 20 national sporting bodies voiced their support for the establishment of a legislative body made up of Indigenous people.
The letter was signed by executives and players from major sporting codes, including the AFL, NRL, Football Australia, Basketball Australia, Cricket Australia, Tennis Australia, Netball Australia and Rugby Australia.
“We, as a collective, support recognition through a Voice,” the letter said.
“Sport plays a significant role in reconciling Australia. It has long been a means for the inclusion and celebration of the incredible achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,” the letter said.
“We commit to using our platforms to lead conversations that promote respect, trust and goodwill between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
The sports coalition encouraged other Australians who love sports to “listen with an open heart and an open mind through this historic moment.”
“Together, we share a vision for the future as a nation that values equality, fairness, and the rights of the traditional custodians of our land—the land on which we play, love and celebrate sport in Australia.”
What Sporting Identities Said
Meninga suggested that sport plays such a significant place in Australian society that “this time, in particular, politics and sport should mix.”“We’re Australians, and we’re going to be asked to vote yes or no. So what’s wrong with us having a voice? What’s wrong with us having an opinion?”
He added that sports “should have a voice in what is a really significant issue in Australian history.”
Meanwhile, Rugby League chief executive Andrew Abdo said the sports and rugby league offers the opportunity to celebrate multiple cultures living in the country and promote unity.
“Sport is a language that everyone understands,” he said.
James Johnson, Football Australia (FA) chief executive, echoed the sentiment, saying as FA represents two million participants across the country, they need to make sure that they are “a values-led organisation.”
Sports Should Be Apolitical: Australian Mining Magnate
It was not the first time sporting bodies showed their support for progressive legislation.
Gina Rinehart, and her company Hancock Prospecting, which mines iron ore (not coal), said she was withdrawing sponsorship due to disunity within the sport and after inaccurate reporting on her company’s work with Indigenous communities.
“The reality is that sponsorship is integral to sports organisations—for full-time professionals right through to young children at grassroots level—who rely on corporations investing the funds that enable all sports to not only survive, but thrive,” the company’s state reads. “Sadly, recent media does not help encourage sporting sponsorships.”
Hancock also noted it provided extensive support to Indigenous communities.
Voice Risks Dividing Australians On Race
While sporting organisations cite unity as their basis for supporting the Voice, several prominent Indigenous leaders have warned that it would do the opposite.
Warren Mundine, the former national president of the Australian Labor Party, argued that the proposal advocated would involve “putting one race above other races.”
“This idea that you need to set up a huge bureaucracy that’s going to cost millions and millions of dollars to operate and is going to solve all these problems is just a fantasy world,” he said.
“Name me a law that doesn’t affect Aboriginal people. It’s every law, it’s taxation, it’s traffic, road rules, it’s education, it’s health, it’s the budget.”
The former chairman of the Coalition government’s Indigenous Advisory Council said five similar attempts to change the Constitution have occurred since 1970, all of which have failed. Mundine said experiments with such laws have “ended in revolution and argument.”
