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If you vote No in the Voice referendum you are voting with the team that brought you Robodebt. Robodebt cost lives and Australian tax payers more than $1.8 billion in a settled class action by plaintiffs. If you vote No you are voting with the team once led by the biggest liar in the history of Australian prime ministers, Scott Morrison. If you vote no you are aligning yourself with the racist community here in Australia. If dog whistling is one of your favourite sports, then, Peter Dutton is your man. Dutton has promised another referendum on the same issue if he is elected PM??? Warren Mundine has promised his push for treaty if you only vote No???? It sounds like these folks will say anything to dissuade you from voting Yes in this referendum about changing the constitution to recognise a Voice to Parliament for First Nations Australians.
Voting No: What Is In It For Them?
You have to ask yourself why would these people invest their time and money in campaigning against an advisory Voice to Parliament for Indigenous Aussies. What is their beef with it? The Coalition of Libs and Nat’s had 10 years in office as the federal governors of Australia. They consistently refused the Uluru Statement from the Heart proposition. They rejected the olive branch from First Nations people. Peter Dutton refused to say sorry over the stolen Indigenous children at the time and for many years afterwards. John Howard and his lot told us that the sky would fall in if the Australian government said sorry. PM Kevin Rudd did and no such terrible things happened, quite the reverse, it was a nationally healing moment. The Coalition are playing politics over the Voice, as they have over climate change. Howard and Tony Abbott are still at it despite being booted out by the Australian people at the ballot box. These conservative warriors only care about their side winning. They say, ‘bugger the consequences!’ Bad people do bad things.
Tarnishing Our International Reputation By Voting No
Australia’s international reputation will be tarnished if the No vote gets up and the referendum is defeated. PM Anthony Albanese has told us that we are pretty much the only new world nation, born out of colonisation by a European power, not to have recognised its First Nations people. What does that say about Australia? What does that say about the Australian people? In 2023, we may not be directly responsible for what happened a couple of centuries ago but we live with its consequences in terms of the status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders today. The health, wealth, and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians is far below that of white Australians in the 21C. We do not live in a nation of equal opportunity, despite what some proponents of the No vote say. The facts and figures do not lie. Closing the gap has been a well-recognised quest by governments of all persuasions for decades.
A No vote will condemn Aboriginal people to more of the same and the world will know it.
The Black Face Of No
Jacinta Price is an Indigenous conservative politician representing the National Party in the senate for the Northern Territory.
“A regular commentator on Sky News Australia, Ms Price defeated first-term Country Liberal incumbent Samantha McMahon”
Price has been a dark skinned poster child for the right wing in Australia for some time. Since the Voice referendum has taken centre stage she has become a celebrity for the cause of doing nothing by voting No and for more of the same, which has not shifted the dial much at all in terms of closing the gap. However, the great majority of First Nations Australians in the Northern Territory are voting Yes in the coming referendum. Disengaged white Aussies may well see Price as an Aboriginal champion of the No vote. Especially as most Australians have no engagement with First Nations Aussies in their lives, with only 1 in 6 having regular contact with someone Indigenous.
Australia is no longer apartheid but whites are definitely apart from their black fellow and sister Aussies.
Lying Down With Dogs
There is an old saying about –
‘If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas.’ If you vote No you are in the same camp with some questionable people with questionable motives. Voting Yes ushers in a new way of doing things by listening to those affected. Isn’t it time we really listened to First Nations people in this country. Let’s be brave and vote for a new way of doing things. Vote Yes to empower Indigenous Australia.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt, and Financial Freedom.
©Midas Word
