Andrew Bolt: Voice campaigners now so desperate it’s ha-ha funny

Noel Pearson tried to do a reverse ferret on Saturday, as polls show Australians are waking up to how dangerous and racist the Voice actually is.

Noel Pearson tried to do a reverse ferret on Saturday. Picture: Sean Davey.

I don’t want to sound mean, but Voice campaigners are getting so desperate that their falsehoods are now ha-ha funny.

Take Noel Pearson, worshipfully described as “one of the champions and architects” of the Voice, Labor’s plan for a kind of Aboriginal-only advisory parliament, included in our Constitution.

With polls now showing Australians waking up to how dangerous and racist this plan is, Pearson on Saturday tried the reverse ferret at a Yes event in Beecroft, NSW.

“Australians want to put behind us the idea that there were settlers and there were natives,” he now agreed.

True, Noel! That’s the no campaign right there: no racial division!

But then came Pearson’s punchline. Vote yes to the Voice, he said, because “once we recognise the indigenous people as Australians, settlers versus natives will be in the past; we’ll all be Australians.”

Noel, you old joker! You got me! For a second I thought you’d given up on your racist Voice.

Truth is, it will of course do the exact opposite of what you now say. We’re already “all Australians”, but this Voice is deliberately designed to change that by dividing us by race. Forever.

Noel Pearson is described as ‘one of the champions and architects’ of the Voice.

If Labor wins the referendum later this year, our Constitution will for the first time give one race extra political rights – an advisory parliament of its own. That Voice will then push for Aborigines to have their own sovereignty and a treaty, as well, with “reparations” obviously on the agenda.

That’s the dangerous truth that Albanese last week tried so angrily to deny on 2GB, in an outburst just as deceptive as Pearson’s but a lot less funny.

“I can’t say it any clearer, compensation has nothing to do with what people will vote on later this year,” he protested.

But your Prime Minister is deceiving you. Saying the Voice isn’t about compensation is like saying a match has nothing to do with fire.

In fact, Albanese’s Voice has everything to do with Labor’s agenda to negotiate a treaty with activists claiming to represent Australian Aborigines. And those activists already say they want “reparations”.

Just listen to Voice activists such as Thomas Mayo, appointed by the government to help design the Voice.

Mayo has said the Voice would be “a black political force to be reckoned with”, and “would debate “‘Pay the Rent’ for example, how do we do that in a way that is transparent and that actually sees reparations and compensation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people”.

Mayo has correctly described the Voice as the first of a three-part revolution to our politics detailed in the “Uluru Statement” which was issued by Aboriginal activists six years ago.

Albanese last year promised to deliver all three of those demands “in full” – not just the Voice but “a Makarrata Commission” to prepare for the third goal, “treaty-making”.

In fact, he’s already handed over $5.8m in the last Budget to create that Makaratta.

As Albanese repeated just a couple of months ago, those three goals – Voice, Makaratta, treaty – were interlocked: “One of the things a Voice to Parliament will be able to do is to talk about Makaratta, the need for agreement making and the coming together after conflict.”

And just about every activist says a treaty must include reparations, and not just the land rights and the $34bn a year we already spend on Aborigines, twice per person than we spend on other Australians.

If you doubt this is where we’re going, check out Victoria.

The Andrews’ Labor Government there has already set up Victoria’s own Voice – it’s First Nations Assembly – although not, thankfully, in any constitution.

This assembly has since appointed directors to its “Self-Determination Fund”, which Premier Dan Andrews gave $35m to “prepare for Treaty negotiations”.

Big surprise, not: fund leaders told The Age “reparations or redress could form part” of this process.

And note: just 4200 people claiming to be Aborigines voted for this First Peoples Assembly. That’s just 6.4 per cent of Victorian Aborigines, and just 0.06 per cent of all Victorians. Yet this body now suggests it become a full-on “Black parliament”, holding the real parliament to account, as well as haggling for cash.

Be warned. A vote for Albanese’s Voice is essentially a vote for the whole package – Voice, Makaratta and treaty – with Voice activists already demanding “reparations”.

Be honest with Australians, Prime Minister. That’s your plan. You’ve said it before, so don’t do a Pearson and hide it now.

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Voice campaigners now so desperate it’s ha-ha funny