University of Canberra Chancellor Tom Calma has hit back of critics of the process to co-design an Indigenous voice to government, saying having a voice to parliament doesn't necessarily mean anyone will listen.
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Professor Calma has been chosen alongside academic Marcia Langton to lead the development of a model to ensure that Indigenous Australians are heard at all levels of government.
But the process is already being criticised as a step back from the voice to parliament called for through the Uluru statement from the heart.
Indigenous activist Thomas Mayor said the shift to a voice to government was a "slap in the face".
"It's a minimalist response, it's basically saying to Indigenous people who came together all around the country and came up with a wonderful consensus that we want a voice to parliament and we want it constitutionally enshrined and reduced it to a voice to government," Mr Mayor told RN Breakfast.
Mr Mayor said establishing the body as an advisory group to government meant it could be abolished by government, like past groups have been.
"[Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt's] shift to a voice to government is a slap in the face, he's reminding us all that what we say will not be listened to and we'll be silenced one day," Mr Mayor said.
Labor's spokeswoman for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney questioned whether Mr Wyatt misspoke when calling it a voice to government instead of parliament.
"I want to seek clarification whether it's to the government or to the parliament," Ms Burney told ABC Radio.
The minister's office confirmed the statement was correct.
"As the minister has said today, a voice to government better reflects that governments are the decision makers when it comes to implementing Indigenous policy and having responsibility for funding and service delivery," a spokesman said.
Speaking to The Canberra Times, Professor Calma said he expected there to be some disappointment from people who had been involved in past processes.
"Thomas was one of the key people involved in the Uluru statement so I would anticipate that he would hold that line," Professor Calma said.
However, Professor Calma hoped to build on work done previously in order to create a model that would be acceptable to the broader community.
"As the minister put it, there are more than 800,000 Indigenous people in Australia and this is an opportunity for those who may not have been able to be heard through the Uluru process to express their views," he said.
Professor Calma said the problem with the Uluru statement was that it did not present a model for a voice to parliament.
He also said: "a voice to parliament doesn't bind anyone to action".
"Take for example the social justice commissioner. They're bound to provide a report to parliament annually about human rights which goes to the whole of parliament but parliament has no obligation to pick up on anything," Professor Calma said.
Other bodies like the Productivity Commission and the Human Rights Commission with a voice to parliament faced similar hurdles.
"That's just one of the quirks of our system," Professor Calma said.
What mattered most was finding a mechanism for allowing Indigenous Australians to be heard that had both grassroots and cross-parliamentary support, Professor Calma said.
"If there's not bipartisan support, it doesn't have potential to succeed," he warned.
He also said whatever body was decided on "needed to be able to survive regardless of who was in power".
Nevertheless, Professor Calma was optimistic such a model could be found.
"I wouldn't have signed up if I wasn't. We're in a very good position I think, the Minister for Indigenous Australians is an Indigenous Australian, the Prime Minister has indicated his support for the process and both Marcia and I are committed to giving it our best shot.
"I just hope that people will be able to have an open mind on this process to recognise this kind of opportunity doesn't come around all that often. There's a lot of good will."
