I have noticed letters on The Voice appearing quite regularly in Forum.
Sometimes they contain misinformation – either deliberate or because people believe what they read on social media or from some TV or radio outlets.
It will not affect Australia Day, Anzac Day, higher taxes etc – all a load of rubbish.
The same occurred in 1992 when native land title was passed – the title held over land would be extinguished, people would lose their backyards, farmers would lose their land; none of this happened because again it was lies.
And again with The Apology to the stolen generation, lies were spread about how it would result in court cases and huge compensation payouts; didn’t happen.
And so to now – blatant lies from those who know what they’re doing – and those who don’t understand what The Voice means, or have their own reasons for doing so, pass the lies on.
The Voice allows Aboriginal people to give their views and advice on legislation which affects only them.
The Parliament of the day can accept, reject or modify.
It is not a third chamber of Parliament.
Aborigines are not in the Constitution because it was expected back in 1901 that they would die out and many efforts were made for more than 150 years to have this happen – massacres of men, women and children up until the 1930s, mass poisoning of food and water, being driven off their land to places they couldn’t survive, being put in settlements in which they had no rights at all, taking children to “assimilate” them, slavery on properties so some “settlers” could accumulate vast wealth.
Billions of dollars have been spent but Aborigines still have a life expectancy 10 years less (than other Australians), have the highest rates of mental health problems and twice as many suicides and are more likely to have a disability or long-term chronic health condition.
Their imprisonment rate is 15 times higher, not because they are unlawful people but because the law works differently towards them.
There are 19 outcomes in Closing the Gap and four are being met.
Why? Because decisions are continually being made and implemented by bureaucrats who think they know best without the input of the people who actually know what to do.
Incompetence and overcharging also soak up funds.
The Uluru Statement is not hundreds of written pages; read it in 10 minutes.
Australia is supposed to be the land of the “fair go” – the treatment of First Nations people makes this laughable.
We owe it to the first brave peoples who walked out of Africa over 65 000 years ago – among the first humans to venture forth, 20,000 years before they went north to Europe – to right the greatest injustice of this country.
Surely now the time has come.
Please vote Yes.
Email, Aug 16
Ann Brent, Toukley