Akerman: As the wise man said, without facts, we can’t possibly know what we are being asked to do

Whether a barrister or a barista, facts help in any argument and PM Albanese has none to back his much-vaunted Voice to Parliament, writes Piers Akerman.

One of Australia’s smartest lawyers has (inadvertently) nailed the utter absurdity of the blind support given by those backing the Voice to parliament.

Currently leading the inquiry into the ACT’s failed prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann of the alleged rape of fellow staffer Brittany Higgins, Walter Sofronoff KC – distinguished jurist, former president of the Queensland Court of Appeal and former Queensland solicitor-general – unwittingly laid out the most telling legal argument against those arguing emotionally for a Yes vote.

In probing the ACT’s Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold, Sofronoff asked of the DPP: “You could not possibly, as a barrister, say, ‘I’m prepared to give an opinion about this’, without proof from the man who made the document, could you? You would need some facts. And you don’t seem to have any facts, Mr Drumgold.”

Walter Sofronoff speaking during public hearings of the Australian Capital Territory’s Board of Inquiry into the Criminal Justice System.

That equally applies to every executive of a major corporation (PwC, Qantas are you listening?) which has been forcing one-sided educational assignments about the Voice on its employees; it applies to every sporting body from Rugby Australia, Tennis Australia, the NRL and AFL to the AOC, and it nails Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, his Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and Teals like Allegra Spender, who last week scolded her constituents to “get informed about the Voice to Parliament”.

As Sofronoff told Drumgold, you could not possibly present an opinion without proof. You would need some facts, and you don’t have any.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the details of the Voice to Parliament will only be decided after it passes a referendum. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

It doesn’t matter whether you are a barrister or a barista, facts help in any argument and when Albanese says the details of his much-vaunted Voice to Parliament will only be decided after it passes a referendum. Lack of facts, alone, should kill this proposition stone dead.

Spender,the beneficiary of an education at one of the most expensive girls’ schools in the nation, appears not to have learnt much about logic.

There are 11 Indigenous MPs in the federal parliament and the number of people wearing designer-cut animal skin cloaks in state parliaments has grown exponentially in recent years.

There are more than 300 organisations representing Indigenous people; plus the Coalition of Peaks, or the National Indigenous Australians Agency whose mission it is “to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a say in the decisions that affect them”.

Which would make the Voice totally superfluous.

There are already more than 300 organisations ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a say in the decisions that affect them.

Another issue not spoken of by the virtue-signallers is the lack of accountability for the $30bn of taxpayers’ money that is given to Aboriginal organisations – usually run by dominant tribal groups for the benefit of their clan – annually.

Who knows how many people will put their hands up to cop the NSW government’s $75,000 ex-gratia payment offered to members of the so-called Stolen Generation?

Applications from those who were placed in care by the NSW Aboriginal Protection or Welfare board close on June 30, though no court has found any child removed from a caring parent just for being Aboriginal.

The Labor states are embracing the notion of open-ended treaties with various Aboriginal clans which laughingly use the co-opted Canadian description “First Nations”.

The universally understood tests of nationhood require an acceptance of economic and social responsibility, and political independence and territorial integrity, neither of which existed on this continent in 1788.

That this continent has been home to just one nation, Australia, as symbolised by the Constitution, is self-evident. Labor, and virtue-signallers like the Teals, wish to change that same Constitution and divide us.

Don’t let it happen; we are all Australians.