Australia Tells the Voice to Shut Up
Peter O’Brien
I promised my wife that, after the referendum, I’d now let it go and put my mind to those vexatious tasks neglected for too long, like fixing the screen door. But it’s very early Sunday morning as I write and she’s still in bed. Some random thoughts.
I have repeatedly written that it would not be enough for this Voice to be defeated but that it must go down in flames. Which, thank God, it did.
I have also written that a massive defeat would be an opportunity to reset the debate on Aboriginal affairs, arguing that what was once about Aboriginal welfare and advancement has morphed over the past few decades into Aboriginal power, most obviously evidenced by the elevation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags to the same status as our National Flag. So it was very heartening to see only the National Flag behind Peter Dutton and Jacinta Price when they addressed the media last night. This could be my next campaign (after the screen door, of course).
As to Albanese, he gave the speech he had to give and he did a reasonable job, but his hypocrisy – or duplicity – was laid bare for all to see when he said, ‘the issues we sought to address have not gone away.’ Well neither has his proposed solution – the Voice, which, even if the referendum had succeeded, would still have needed to be legislated.
If this Voice was so critical to Aboriginal welfare that it had to be entrenched in the Constitution, Mr Albanese, why not legislate it? Chris Kenny, who has decried the lack of bi-partisanship, has repeatedly relied on the specious logic that the Coalition also wants a Voice and the only difference between the rival parties on this issue is whether it should be in the Constitution. Will he now call on the government to negotiate with the Coalition to legislate this allegedly status quo-changing initiative? Kenny also dismissed claims the Voice would be divisive by asking ‘if a legislated Voice is not divisive, why would a constitutional one be divisive?’ By the same logic then, perhaps he could explain why a constitutionally entrenched Voice would be effective, but a legislated one would not?
Let me hasten to add that I am not advocating a Voice, merely calling out Albanese’s refusal to legislate one.
Predictably, the defeat was greeted with an emotional response from the leaders of the Yes campaign, whose angst will have been given extra juice by Albanese’s repeated assurances that this was ‘a modest proposal’, ‘a hand outstretched in invitation’ and ‘just good manners’.I have not been able to access the full text of their statement but here it is as quoted in the the Australian (emphasis added):
Indigenous leaders across Australia who have supported the voice have lamented the defeated referendum as a “bitter irony” in that newcomers who had been on the continent for 235 years would “refuse recognition to the true owners of Australia”.
“The referendum was a chance for newcomers to show a long-refused grace and gratitude and to acknowledge that the brutal dispossession of our people underwrote their every advantage in this country,” the leaders said.
“For more than six years, we have explained to our nation why the voice was our great hope to achieve real change for our families and communities.”
The statement declared that it was now a “time for silence, to mourn and deeply consider the consequence of this outcome’’.
It called for a week of silence from Saturday night to “grieve this outcome and reflect on its meaning and significance”.
“Much will be asked about the role of racism and prejudice against Indigenous people in this result. The only thing we ask is that each and every Australian who voted in this election reflect hard on this question,” the statement said.
“We will not rest long. Pack up the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Fly our flags low. Talk not of recognition and reconciliation.
“Re-gather our strength and resolve, and when we determine a new direction for justice and our rights, let us once again unite. Let us convene in due course to carefully consider our path forward.”
And there was this banner(unattributed) in the middle of the article:
‘Right now there is a very visceral feeling that millions of Australians hate them.’
Given all the ‘grace and gratitude’ that have already been extended to Aboriginal people, ranging from Land Rights to cheap opera tickets – and not to mention nearly $40 billion per year – there is not a lot of self-awareness in that. Am I to believe Thomas Mayo, born in 1978, is a true owner of this country but I am not?
And note the trickery in the racism statement: We are not saying you are racist, but you probably are.
A couple of minor observations. I couldn’t let this go without one more swipe at Chris Kenny, whose totally disingenuous defence of the Voice continued unabated throughout the panel discussion – not a lot of self-awareness there either. During the campaign he repeatedly claimed the fall in support for the Voice was caused by misinformation spread by the No campaign, and fuelled by the Coalition whose only motivation was to gain party political advantage. What he seemed to be saying was that much of the support for the No campaign was based on a desire to punish the Labor Party and advantage the Coalition. I have previously pointed out that, if that were so, we would see that mindset reflected in the 2PP polling. And Kenny himself made that point last night when he said that you can’t draw any inference that this result would be reflected in a general election, or words to that effect.
And one minor, perhaps mean-spirited point, when Communications Minister Michelle Rowland was praising Minister Linda Burney, on Sky News last night, she noted that she had had a tough life, had only met her father when she was 28 and that she had lost her son ‘another statistic of closing the gap’. Burney’s son, Binni, died recently at the age of 33 after a life troubled by drugs and mental disorder. That is very sad, as is the fact that Burney’s partner, Rick Farley, also died suddenly in 2006. But Rowland’s glib attribution of the death of Binni Farley to ‘the gap’ is a great example of the cynical misuse of tropes such as ‘the gap’ or the ‘stolen generations’. As was Burney’s past claims of having been administered under the Flora and Fauna Act (since withdrawn) or not having been counted in the census until she was 10.
Jacinta Price gave the best speech of the night, and she will continue to be not only a political star but also a very effective Minister for Indigenous Australians (in a hopefully renamed ministry) in short order.
Finally, Peter Dutton must have been reading my playbook. You’re at 100% so far, Peter, keep it up.
Nelle's journey 