It is now over a year since the declaration of the Uluru Statement From the Heart (the ‘Uluru Statement’). Following an exhaustive series of dialogues with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community throughout Australia, the Uluru Statement offers an Indigenous-led legal, political, and cultural solution for bringing together Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within our system of governance. Its three pillars are Voice, treaty, and truth-telling. In this comment we provide an overview of the Uluru Statement and its importance in Australia’s legal landscape. We do so as a background to our key contention that the Uluru Statement is a central pillar in a truly pluralistic Australian public law. Regardless of its political reception — at the time of writing the Australian government has rejected it out of hand — the Uluru Statement represents a milestone of Australian law offering a vital opportunity to integrate Indigenous law into an otherwise settler legal system.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have long called for structural reform to Australia’s institutional framework to protect and promote their rights. In recent years, however, state and territory governments have proven more receptive to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ advocacy than the Commonwealth. In this article, we identify and map the return of the states and territories — and the retreat of the Commonwealth — in Indigenous law reform. While substantial progress has been made, significant risks are involved in the pursuit of subnational reform. It remains imperative that the Commonwealth government meaningfully engage with the aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as recorded in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

This article sets out the background to what has occurred since the issuing of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and provides an overview of the Indigenous Voice Co-Design Interim Report and its Voice design options. In doing so, we discuss the possible progression of Local and Regional Voices and other sub-national legislation on First Nations issues. We analyse how those efforts might be limited and/or extinguished if a First Nations Voice is not constitutionally enshrined when we consider the relationship and legislative powers of the Commonwealth, state, and territory parliaments.

In 2017, the Uluru Statement from the Heart provided a consensus position on constitutional reform derived from Regional Dialogues drawing on experiences, views and aspirations of First Nations people. Among its recommendations is a constitutionally entrenched Voice to Parliament. While the government supports a watered-down Voice, this article identifies the key features of constitutional enshrinement that would enhance Australia’s institutions of governance. It focuses on its capacity for representation and its contribution to good governance and articulates the imperative for Voice to be an institution under the Australian Constitution, outlining the risks of settling for a legislated body alone.