I would like to speak tonight about Malcolm ‘Tiger’ McKenzie. Tiger is a 70-year-old proud Aboriginal man. Tiger lives on a property near the town of Hawker in the stunning Flinders Ranges area of South Australia. Tiger has worked hard all of his life, and he’s taught his children and grandchildren the importance of education and hard work. He proudly declares that his family includes five tradies and a sergeant of police.
In 2019 the local Port Augusta newspaper wrote:
‘Tiger’ McKenzie is a champion of the Aboriginal. As an indigenous leader, he wants to get his people into business and jobs. … Mr McKenzie, of Port Augusta, is described as a motivator, activist, intimidator, provocateur, visionary and one-of-a-kind. He aims to bring about the best for his Aboriginal community and the region they live in.
Tiger can be proud of what he has built from humble beginnings. He grew up on a mission. When he left to attend school later on in life, his education was stymied by discrimination. But he was gifted at sport and, through the connections he made at football, he was able to find work as a driver for the Commonwealth railways. He later mentored young Indigenous people who worked at the Roxby Downs mine, and he served as a councillor on the Davenport council.
Tiger is a great Australian character. I had the privilege of working closely with Tiger, his family and his community when, as minister for resources, we were consulting on where to select a site for a national radioactive waste facility. Tiger wanted this facility in his community, because he could see the potential that it could bring in terms of local jobs and economic development opportunities, especially for young people.
Tiger recently phoned me up because he wanted to share with me his views about the Voice. Tiger supports a voice that can improve the lives of Aboriginal people on the ground. We had a broad-ranging and respectful discussion about the proposed Voice. At the conclusion of our discussion, I proposed I make a speech in the Senate providing his perspective as a thoughtful and worthwhile contribution to this debate. Hence this speech tonight.
Tiger wants to support the Voice, but he’s disappointed about the lack of detail coming from the government about the proposal. While not denying the good will of those supporting the Voice, Tiger is concerned that the government is not telling the Aboriginal people how the Voice will benefit them. And, from Tiger’s perspective, this benefit must mean more education and more jobs and business development opportunities, especially for young Aboriginal people. Tiger questions how a panel of bureaucrats in Canberra can determine how the Voice will work or how they can choose representatives or how they can decide where the benefits, support and funding will flow. He says: ‘They need to get out and listen to people. They are getting well paid just to sit in Canberra.’
While Tiger strongly supports native title, he’s also worried that bureaucrats in that system might simply see the native title rep bodies as being more broadly representative, an easy option for the Voice that could effectively block the small-v voice of individuals on the ground and not share the benefits more widely. Tiger just wants to see resources shared where they can do the greatest good. He uses the example of working with G’day groups at Wilpena Pound, a model that could work at other locations across Australia, where local Aboriginal people sit down with tourist operators and determine how they can work together for the benefit of both the business and local people. I agree.
What Indigenous Australians want, just like all other Australians, are practical examples and solutions that promote education, training, employment and business development and that break the cycle of unemployment, welfare dependence, violence and crime. In my opinion, we can do these things without creating another big expensive bureaucracy.
It was a great honour to work with Tiger and his community to try to achieve more economic opportunities for the Hawker region. Unfortunately, for Tiger, the vote in his region did not support a radioactive waste facility, and instead the project is proceeding in Kimba nearby, also in South Australia, where 60 per cent of people voted in favour. But I recognise Tiger’s unwavering passion and commitment to deliver practical outcomes for his family and community. As I have seen him fight for them, I have come to understand where he gets his nickname of Tiger.
I hope we can approach the debate on the Voice in a similar way to the respectful discussion that Tiger and I had. Aboriginal people are individual people. Each of them has their own individual positions. Not all of them have the same view on any issue, let alone on the Voice. Indeed, they cannot even be divided into arbitrary, binary yes or no categories. Some are maybes, some are don’t knows and some are even don’t cares, but all of these views must be respected, otherwise the Voice proposal will not recognise Australians; it will just divide us.
Across that diversity of opinion, I am sure there are a lot more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people like Tiger who share some level of dissatisfaction, disappointment, frustration and caution about the Voice. They want to be more fully informed. They want to know how the Voice will improve their lives and, importantly, improve the futures of their children and grandchildren. They want to know that someone will listen, understand and act on their concerns—not just speak for them but listen as well. I hope Tiger’s request does not go unheard.
