Opinion
From afar, the Voice debate is not our finest hour
Australia could lose the moral high ground to speak out on issues on the global stage if the Voice referendum is defeated.
Melanie BrockContributorExplaining the Voice referendum to Japanese colleagues is tricky. Finding the Japanese words to describe the issues facing Australia, not to mention what the First Nations people are facing, has me stumped.
My old Kenkyusha dictionary tells me the word for referendum in Japanese is kokumin-tohyo, a vote by the nation’s people. That helps, but then when I delve into issues such as a majority in most states but not in the territories and what such a constitutional amendment might look like the eyes of my interlocutors glaze over.
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