‘Voting no doesn’t mean you don’t care, it means you don’t believe the Voice is the right solution’

It’s wishful thinking to believe the Voice will improve the life of an Indigenous child living in a dusty creek bed with a sexual predator uncle and alcoholic mother.

May is going to be huge for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

On Tuesday May 9, Treasurer Jim Chalmers will hand down what’s likely to be a horror Budget for most Australians.

The PM won’t be around to cop the blame though — he needs to be in London by no later than Saturday of that week to witness the coronation of King Charles III.

Ten days later he’ll be in Sydney to host the leaders of Japan, India and the U.S. – including President Joe Biden - for an Opera House meeting announced this week.

This gathering happens a day after the first anniversary of the election victory of the Albanese Government, on May 22 last year.

That begs the question: Is Australia a better place to live a year on from Labor’s election win or do we feel like we are going backwards?

Most Australians I know feel less secure for their future and fearful for the future of their children.

A passionate Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spruiks the Voice. Picture: Chris Kidd

Far from being an inspirational Bob Hawke-style outfit, the Albanese government seems to have spent 12 months blaming all our problems on the previous Coalition governments, going back 10 years. Resorting to labelling the now Opposition as the No-alition helps nobody, and is simply a cheap political shot.

It’s worth pointing out that, except a major scandal, the emergence of a charismatic Opposition leader or a complete economic collapse, Labor will be in office for a minimum two terms.

It’s time to forget what the previous mob did and start taking responsibility for the future and make some tough decisions that have a real impact on ordinary Australians.

Sadly for the PM, his own words on election night and his natural instincts as a leftie social warrior, ruling with his heart not his head, means too much political energy is now focused on things like the Voice to Parliament.

I think the PM crucially has his referendums around the wrong way.

He wasn’t to know the much-loved Queen Elizabeth II was to die in September last year, but even so the referendum to turn Australia into a republic should have come before this Voice change.

An Australian republic headed by an Australian president would have been much more likely to convince Australians of all political persuasion – aside from perhaps Lidia Thorpe – that the Voice would be a good idea.

A car on fire in Alice Springs. Picture: Supplied

As it stands, the overwhelming feedback I get from Aussies of all ages and backgrounds is one of confusion.

We don’t yet have any idea when the Voice vote will be held and many of us are highly suspicious of what comes next: treaty or compensation or both? We also don’t know about the future of Australia Day, and, most importantly, what the Voice will really do to help indigenous poverty that the billions of dollars already spent hasn’t done?

To air these views and the likelihood of a personal ‘no’ vote gets you labelled a racist dinosaur, ignoring the impact colonial settlement of this great country had on its then nomadic occupants.

I’m certainly not racist and might be a dinosaur but I truly believe in practical outcomes not some newly-created inner city indigenous elite club layered over the top of an already bloated three levels of government.

Travelling in the past fortnight through remote coastal WA and through central regional Victoria, nobody I spoke to thought the Voice would do anything to help those who need it.

The lived experience in the small and medium communities north of Perth shone a light for me on the black and white divide that is still the Australia outside of the big cities.

Much like the shanty towns of South Africa, it's the outlying areas of small towns of government-provided housing where Indigenous Australians live. Rundown properties on the edge of town where locals tell you not to go.

What the Voice is going to say and do about that should be the question everyone asks to be answered before ticking yes.

Will Alice Springs, Darwin, Townsville, Tennant Creek, Brewarrina and dozens of other communities be rid of violence, street crime, domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse and child sexual assault because of the Voice?

Of course, the answer is no.

A street scene in Alice Springs on a Wednesday night this month. Picture: Liam Mendes

I have no doubt the PM is genuinely emotional when prosecuting his case for this referendum but that’s no surprise.

He is a baby of the left and keeps telling us he grew up in social housing himself.

Wanting others to have a better life than living in a dusty creek bed outside Alice Springs with a sexual predator for an uncle and an alcoholic mother is something we would all want.

To see a bunch of unelected and overpaid Indigenous bureaucrats delivering a better life for that child in that community is, in my view, wishful thinking.

Voting ‘no’ doesn’t mean you don’t care, it means you don’t believe ‘yes’ is the answer, or the Voice the right solution.

As the PM’s private jet flies across the Red Centre of Australia on the way to pay respects to the new King, maybe he could turn his attention to coming up with some real solutions, not emotional gestures.

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Originally published as ‘Voting no doesn’t mean you don’t care, it means you don’t believe the Voice is the right solution’