Akerman: Stop the humbug and silence the Voice
Stop humbugging, Albo. Come clean on this shonky Voice referendum and dump it now, writes Piers Akerman.
Opinion
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney and those pushing the Voice are “humbugging” the nation.
“Humbugging” is an Aboriginal term used in the Kimberley to describe when someone demands money that belongs to someone else with no intention of repaying it, according to the dictionary.
Collins defines it as tricking or deceiving, nonsense and rubbish.
Albanese and those trying to humbug Australia into voting Yes in the referendum have branded as nutty conspiracists all who say there is more to the Uluru Statement from the Heart than a one-page document.
Through FOI, a 26-page document has been revealed. It is not a modest request, as Albanese says, or harmless as Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus claims. UNSW law professor Megan Davis and Pat Anderson, members of the PM’s advisory group, agree. Both have said the statement is 18 pages, with a further eight of explanation, not the single page Albanese insists.
Even Dean Parkin, the prominent spokesman for the Yes campaign, agrees. On Wednesday, 2GB host Ben Fordham played an audio clip of Davis saying “it isn’t just the first, like one-page statement, it’s actually a very lengthy document of about 18 to 20 pages”.
He then asked Parkin: “Who’s right, the PM or Davis?”
Parkin’s clear response was “Well, they both are. I was there when the statement was read, when Megan read it for the very first time.”
Albanese is being dishonest in denying the statement is more than one page and he refuses to acknowledge it wants reparations based on a percentage of GDP.
His shameful “humbugging” campaign is focused on recognition but not the demands for sovereignty and more money, taxpayers’ money, which could flow from the Voice if the referendum succeeds.
The long-form statement begins with a lopsided invasion narrative of massacres, genocide, poisonings and guerrilla wars of resistance, the full litany of black armband humbug.
Assimilation is treated as a curse, though the overwhelming majority of those identifying as Indigenous today are married to non-Indigenous partners, and it is plainly obvious that leaders of the Yes campaign are comfortably from middle-class and of mixed Indigenous and non-Indigenous heritage.
Though taxpayers are already being bled an estimated $40bn a year to support Indigenous-only programs, and more than 50 per cent of the continent is under the control of the 3 per cent of Australians claiming Indigenous heritage, the full statement wants two sovereignties to co-exist with designated Senate seats, a separate Aboriginal chamber, and offices in Canberra’s parliamentary triangle.
It proposes “a proper say in decision-making, the establishment of a truth commission, reparations, a financial settlement (such as seeking a percentage of GDP), the resolution of land, water and resources issues, recognition of authority and customary law, and guarantees of respect for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples”.
Back in 2017, the Coalition government under then PM Malcolm Turnbull rejected this proposition but turncoat Turnbull is now supportive of the Voice.
Similar contradictory positions have been taken by Liberal MP Julian Leeser and constitutional lawyer Greg Craven, both of whom have acknowledged the unsound nature of the constitutional change they are promoting.
Craven said: “I think it’s fatally flawed because what it does is retain the full range of review of executive action. This means the Voice can comment on everything from submarines to parking tickets … (so) we will have regular judicial interventions.”
He objected to that statement being published by No campaigners.
Craven is not the only Yes promoter acknowledging the sweeping powers a Yes vote would enshrine if the Voice was locked into the Constitution.
Davis has said the Voice “would be able to speak to all parts of the government”. And other members of Albanese’s referendum advisory group, including artist Sally Scales, say the Voice should even be consulted on the AUKUS nuclear submarine program, contradicting Noel Pearson, another in the advisory group.
Millions have been committed by the Green-Labor government to the referendum, millions have already been spent on propaganda, and that’s not including the money wasted by the ABC and SBS promoting the Yes vote.
Major corporations have donated tens of millions of shareholders’ dollars but not much due diligence has been done on the realities of the demands.
The WA government dumped its Aboriginal heritage legislation after five weeks but if the Voice is approved, it will be locked into the Constitution.
Stop humbugging, Albo. Come clean on this shonky referendum and dump it now.
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