As a recent BFD post noted, Kiwis simply do not trust the media or politicians. Neither do Australians. In fact, Australians overwhelmingly view media and government as a dividing force in society.
Which all in all makes Anthony Albanese’s “Trust us, we’re politicians” a weird strategy to win a referendum.
Australians don’t trust referendums at the best of times — only eight out of 43 have passed in our history. Yet, here Albanese is, shackling a racially-divisive referendum to a call to just vote blindly and trust the politicians to sort it out.
The Albanese government will not introduce legislation on a proposed model for the Indigenous voice until after Australians go to a referendum in the second half of 2023.
A communique of the latest meeting of Labor’s voice working group on Monday is the clearest indication yet that the government does not intend to legislate an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory body until after Australians decide whether to protect its existence with a constitutional amendment […]
If the referendum succeeds, it is possible the detail of the voice model will not be settled by parliament before the next election.
Note: legislate an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory body until after the next election. In other words, the politicians will decide what the “Voice” actually is — but only after they force Australians to vote in the dark. And Labor won’t even take their model to an election campaign.
Hands up who trusts the politicians?
Any more than they trust “the experts”?
The 21-member voice working group includes former Indigenous Australians minister Ken Wyatt, Gumatj clan leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Indigenous leaders who have worked towards a voice since 2017 when 250 delegates called for it in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
The same Uluru Statement which is an explicit blueprint for an Aboriginal ethnostate.
But the politicians and “experts” clearly think that Australians are so monumentally stupid that we can’t see through obvious lies.
After examining Mr Albanese’s proposed amendment and listening to presentations from experts, the group found the voice would have no power of veto.
Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they? But then, they also say bald-faced lies like this:
The expert group also advised on Monday that the voice did not give special rights.
“The Voice does not confer ‘rights, much less ‘special rights’, on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”
What other group gets its own dedicated body that “advises” parliament? A dedicated body based purely on race?
The expert group found that under the draft amendment, the voice would be empowered to make representations to the parliament and the executive government about matters, including existing or proposed laws, policies or decisions that have a connection to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The Australian
So, basically, anything and everything.
Every single law, policy or decision of parliament will subject to the scrutiny of an unelected, racially-exclusive body whose powers we won’t even be told about before the next election, let alone the referendum.
But, hey, trust them — they’re politicians and lawyers.