Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people invited to 'deadly' voting workshop in Dubbo

The event called 'Deadly Votes Talks', held between 5.30pm and 7pm, will inform attendees when to register to vote, why voting is important and how their vote can make a difference for Indigenous people and communities.

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According to the Australian Electoral Commission almost 87,000 Indigenous people in the country were unregistered to vote. In NSW, it is estimated that about 16,000 Indigenous people are not registered to vote.

"What this means is that people are not ready to vote when they turn up to a polling place during an election or referendum," Kat Henaway, founder and chief executive of Politics in Colour, said.

"When Local, State and Federal Government elections occur, it's important to have your say. Your vote is your voice to have your say and it's important to know that your vote will count on election day."

The land council is partnering up with Indigenous business Politics in Colour for the event at 99 Wingewarra Street. The business aims to amplify people of colour (POC) in politics and hosts candid conversations with Indigenous people and POC about their journey into politics.

Ms Henaway also said one of the challenges with enrolling to vote was that was that some people had no identification documents. In the past, these people had to print up forms to have their identity verified by an enrolled voter who knows them. Now, the process has been changed to allow verification online.

"If you have no fixed address, you are still eligible to enrol to vote in elections. If you don't have a Driver's Licence, a Medicare Card can be a form of identification to enrol to vote. Our workshop talks about all the different ways you can register to vote and overcome the challenges to registering to vote that you might be facing," Ms Henaway said.

The voting workshop will have representatives from Dubbo Regional Council, Dubbo Local Aboriginal Land Council and the Australian Electoral Commission to answer any questions people may have.

"We also run Political Candidate Training workshops to teach First Nations and People of Colour 'how to get elected',"

Councillors Lewis Burns and Pam Wells had attended the training workshop as did land council chief and former council runner Tatum Moore. Ms Moore and Cr Wells will speak about their experiences of running for local government and how voting helps to bring more Aboriginal people into politics.

Ms Henaway was proud to reveal it was the first Deadly Votes Talks event in the country.

"Dubbo Regional Council and now Dubbo Local Aboriginal Land Council are leading the way, particularly in NSW in educating and advocating for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voters, candidates and politicians," she said.