CHIA and its Board recently canvased member views to decide its position on The Voice and referendum.

CHIA recognises that while many members and staff personally support the Voice campaign, there are often challenges when adopting a position as an organisation, due to the many stakeholders its members work with and that it is an individual’s choice. CHIA has previously expressed support for the Uluru Statement From the Heart. 

There was a clear majority and strong support for CHIA to support the Voice publicly. Thank you to all members who responded to the survey.

CHIA would like to highlight Honorary Professor Dr Vivienne Milligan’s recent  article that provides a cogent example from the housing world (the NSW Aboriginal Housing Office) of the positive results from embedding Indigenous advice in housing policy making. She contrasts the state of Indigenous housing and the Indigenous housing sector in NSW with other jurisdictions. For example, ‘When most other jurisdictions went backwards, over the last 25 years NSW has retained a strong network of regulated Aboriginal housing organisations. This has averted the mainstreaming of all housing service delivery, providing more options for Aboriginal people. Today around 40% of all Aboriginal social housing tenant households in NSW live in Aboriginal-run housing’.