Over the past two issues you have published letters for and against the Voice.
Neither side of this argument has mentioned the obvious.
It is true that the Statement from the Heart is one page.
However it did not just appear, it was the result of years of negotiation between the various state Indigenous groups.
Reading through the minutes of these meetings it was obvious that some of the suggestions could not be included in the final statement if the Voice was to get up.
Demands for another state for Indigenous people or a percentage of GDP to be paid were non-starters from the beginning.
As were the very angry statements that were made.
Then came the 26-page report which is much talked about and from which the final single page was drawn.
Clearly when one reads the 26 pages there may be things in it that might not get through, so the convenors of the final conference had to be careful; that’s why some people walked out of the conference.
If one is to make a well-informed decision as to which way to vote then they should read the 26 pages.
If on the other hand emotion is the decision for the vote do not bother.
In fact some people may not find anything difficult in those 26 pages.
What I find difficult to understand is that if the Government wants us to understand what we are voting for why not publish those 26 pages?
The same goes for the Opposition.
The same argument applies to the media.
As Linda Burney has said, the Voice is just the start.
If we want to know what comes next we need to read the documents and make our decision based on that, not on emotion alone.
Email, Sep 1
Geoff Mitchell, Kariong