A big day for Australia

This post isn’t for everyone.

If you have already voted in the Referendum, or if you have made up your mind which way you’re going to vote – either way – then you can stop right now and scroll to another post.

But if you still don’t know what you’re going to do when you step into the polling booth, democracy sausage making its way through your digestive system, referendum ballot paper in hand, then I ask you to at least take the following into consideration.

1. The proposition is actually pretty simple, despite attempts to make it seem sinister. It’s to change the Constitution, to: (a) acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First People of Australia (historically accurate and uncontroversial); (b) establish The Voice to Parliament as a body to make representations to Parliament and the Government on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; and (c) give the Parliament the power to legislate how The Voice will operate.
2. If you’re worried that The Voice will make laws that will impact you, it won’t. That power still resides in the Parliament, which we get to elect.
3. If you’re worried that The Voice will be a law unto itself, it won’t. The Parliament has the power to legislate how it operates, what its composition is, what its functions are, and how it proceeds. Again, we get to elect Parliament.
4. If you are okay with the concept of The Voice but don’t see why it needs to be enshrined in the Constitution, it’s to make sure that the Government of the day can’t just abolish it if they don’t like the advice it’s giving or how it’s operating, just like past Governments have done (eg ATSIC). The only way it could be abolished by another referendum.
5. If you are concerned that The Voice puts power in the Constitution to make laws based on race, it’s already there (Section 51(xxvi) gives Parliament the power to make special laws for people of any race).
6. If you are worried that The Voice will give extra political rights to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, it won’t. It is an advisory body only. But don’t take my word for it. Every Constitutional Law expert in the country is clear about this.
7. If you’re worried that The Voice will lead to a raft of litigation about legislation, it won’t. Those same Constitutional experts are clear that the drafting has been done in a way that takes legal challenges out of play and makes the responsibility for the passing of laws a political one rather than a legal one.
8. If you are worried because you’ve seen reports that not all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people support The Voice, then know that: (a) poll after poll after poll shows that >80% of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people support and want The Voice; and (b) of those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who don’t support The Voice, the largest number don’t support it because they don’t think it goes far enough … it’s not because they think it won’t deliver benefit.
9. If you are worried because you’ve heard that the cost of administering The Voice is going to be $30BN per year, that figure is made up. Parliament will decide how The Voice will operate and how much budget to allocate to it. But also, if you’re genuinely worried about the Federal Budget, there’s plenty of other line items to attack first.
10. If you are worried about having a body with the power to give advice to the Government on narrow issues, then keep in mind that the Parliament already takes advice from a range of what are referred to as secondary government bodies (eg the Productivity Commission, the Law Reform Committee, etc) – there are literally hundreds of these already.
11. If you are worried about disproportionate influence on the laws that are passed, let me tell you about lobbying and advocacy work (for example, in my job, I have a pass that allows me to roam the halls of Parliament House unaccompanied to try to meet with people to influence them on regulatory, policy and funding outcomes for GPs) and you’d be amazed at what influence is already present in the laws that are passed by Parliament.
12. If you think that there is already enough representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Parliament because we have indigenous Parliamentarians, remember that their primary responsibility is to represent their electorate. Also, what happens if they are voted out of office, and we have no indigenous Parliamentarians at some future point?
13. If you think that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people already enjoy advantages over non-indigenous people, then know that on just about every measure of “advantage” – health outcomes, life expectancy, employment status, home ownership and housing status, education attainment, wealth holding, to name a few – our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander fellow citizens are statistically significantly worse off than non-indigenous people. Ask yourself whether you would be happy to live in circumstances where you enjoyed the average wage, health status, asset base, educational levels of our indigenous brothers and sisters.
14. If you are worried that The Voice will create apartheid in Australia, then maybe read up on apartheid.
15. If you think this is a coup by the UN to take over the country, or some other conspiracy theory that mainstream media is keeping from the population, then maybe learn how to be more discerning about what you read and see and hear.
16. If you’re still unsure after all that, then maybe just vote for a proposition that will provide benefits to others, even if it doesn’t provide you with any benefit. Be a good person.

I have already voted “yes”. Tomorrow, my family members will be voting “yes”. We do so proudly, optimistically, but not necessarily confident in the outcome. Polling indicates that there are still a lot of people undecided, and they will ultimately sway the result of the referendum.

So, as I said at the start, this post isn’t for everyone. If you’ve already voted “no” or are intending to vote “no”, I respect your right to do so. You even have the right to make your own post about why you’re voting that way and to make an alternative case to the one I’m making. But don’t do that here; I won’t be engaging in a debate with you.

And if you’re still genuinely unsure about how to vote, then please feel free to post any questions you still have, and I’ll do my best to answer them accurately and independently.

Paul