Swayed to vote Yes, support the Voice referendum after interviews with Aunty Joyce, Sam O’Connor

With the Voice Referendum officially upon us, the signs don’t look good for the Yes Campaign, but it’s been a privilege to fight for this matter of morality, writes Ann Wason Moore. Read her view

OPINION: All week, there has been a line from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird echoing in my head:

“Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started, is no reason for us not to try to win.”

It’s the explanation given by lawyer Atticus Finch when his daughter questions why he will defend a black man, falsely accused of rape, when he knows the racist jury’s verdict will end in conviction.

It’s the same reason why I’ve been spending my time at the Broadbeach Senior Citizens Centre this week, handing out how to vote cards.

Given the poll results, I am expecting the Yes campaign to lose. But that’s no reason for me not to help them fight for a win, to stand on the right side of history.

Because this referendum is not a question of politics, but a matter of morality. That’s the realisation I reached after spending weeks interviewing people across the Gold Coast, from all sides of politics, about the Voice.

Pictured are people pre polling for the Voice Referendum at Belmore Church of Christ in Belmore this week. Picture: Tim Hunter.

It’s precisely why, in this moment, I have to stand up for the proposal created by our First Nations, who have long been treated as far less than second-class citizens. Who, not so long ago, were not considered citizens at all. While my experience at the pre-polling booths was overall enjoyable and I met lovely people from both sides, it has also been exhausting – physically, mentally and emotionally.

However, I’m well aware that, as of next week, I’ll be able to take the Yes sign off my front gate, remove the profile sticker from my Facebook account, and continue on with my life. And that is what you call privilege.

Of course I’ll be devastated, but my personal loss is really of no account.

What matters is those people who were hoping for a warm welcome to their own country, to be embraced by the Constitution and by every citizen to an Australia that, perhaps for the first time, was on its way to true unity.

It’s the reason why Griffith University has arranged for counselling for its Indigenous students should the No vote win. This is going to hurt. Now, I’m not so naive as to think the Voice could solve everything, but it sure seemed a step in the right direction.

This referendum was such a simple ask, it really is embarrassing if we can’t even grant this request.

Twins Kathleen and Kerrie Simpson disagreed with one another on how to vote on the Voice. Picture: Glenn Hampson

My analogy goes back to parenting. When my children have a problem, the worst thing I can do is impose my solution on them. If they’re struggling with homework, I do not need to take over or immediately email the teacher.

The best thing I can do is talk to them and ask what they think would help … maybe they need a quieter study zone, or want to change classes, or possibly they just want to figure it out themselves. Regardless, if their suggestion is not tenable – ie quitting school – I am still the parent and can say no, or work with them to find a compromise, like finding a tutor.

If anything, this analogy errs on the side of being too patronising and paternalistic, and that does account for some opposition from Indigenous voters, but again, it’s about moving forward.

Instead, I fear we won’t even be back to where we started, we’ll be worse. Both the yes and no campaigns recognise the clear gap in outcomes for our Indigenous versus non-Indigenous populations, but only one side had an actual plan on how to help. What really infuriates me is this idea that the Yes vote would create division. Say what now?

We literally have programs (which have not worked) called Closing the Gap … and do you know how a gap is created? Through division.

The Voice, instead, was about unity. But where one campaign represented hope, the other felt hopeless; which was why I felt a moral imperative to fight for the former.

The Yes vote may well lose, but – just like Atticus Finch – at least I can tell my children that I did not fail to try.

And if it succeeds, what a future … for every child.