Imagine you are suddenly and compulsorily required to agree to purchase a house.
You don’t know the price you will pay, you don’t know what the house looks like, how big it is or where it is.
You have no option – you must buy it.
And when you’ve “bought” it you can’t sell it or get rid of it.
You live in it, with it, whether you like it or not.
You cannot ask for details, because the authorities will not, or cannot tell you.
It’s a case of “You’ll know later, after you sign on the dotted line to agree to the purchase. And besides, believe us when we say that it will be a great house, and any forward-looking person, keen to see the benefits of this house, will not hesitate to sign up”.
Me?
I’m forward looking – but I just see a lot of bulldust.
That is what the Yes campaign is asking of us.
“Don’t worry, we know best what’s good for you, and our Aborigines. Trust us, we’ll work it all out later. And don’t read the fine print about treaties and reparations – just ignore those things.”
Normally, referenda have a long lead-in, with lengthy consultations, a referendum commission to work out the detail of what will be achieved, etc.
Not this one.
It looks like some feel-good thought bubble with a gung-ho “She’ll be right – everyone will be on the same page – our page”.
But, once you get past the touchy-feely, pie in the sky rhetoric, there is no substance, no plan, no detail.
Just a lot of waffle about better outcomes – idealistic, not realistic.
Better outcomes should have been achieved from the myriad programs, squillions of dollars, and too-many-to-list organisations dedicated to produce these “better outcomes” over many decades.
What special magic will make this Voice achieve what has not done so already?
“Oh, but we’ll work that out down the track … once you’ve committed.”
Do the proposers of this referendum take us for idiots?
Do they expect us to walk blindly and obediently into this thing with no information?
There are better ways, and any of them would be far less controversial, and with better prospects.
Email, Sep 1
Geoff Robertson, The Entrance
Well said.
Yet another privileged white man telling the black fella what is best for them. Mate it says it all in the name The Voice, for god’s sake lets recognised the amazing 65000 year culture and then listen to what they want not what our ‘white mans burden’ thinking has got us, no where. VOTE YES
Vote Yes or vote No, basically it’s your decision and no one else’s.
well said Geoff
i see Mr Smith can only use abuse.
vote no. Yes will sell us out and divide us further
Here we go again some uninformed people trying to tell people how to vote.
I will be voting YES and do you know why that is
Always was and always will be Aboriginal land
Its about time we included them