Andrew Bolt: Time to call bull on Voice justification

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney’s cordial story may be the dumbest excuse yet for why we should support the racially divisive Voice.

I thought the Albanese government’s excuses for the Voice – for dividing Australians by race – couldn’t get dumber. But then Linda Burney started babbling about sweet cordial.

The Indigenous Australians Minister has struggled for months to explain how a Voice of 22 unelected black activists, written into our Constitution to act as an advisory parliament, will make any practical difference.

So last Wednesday, Burney tried again to explain what the Voice could do that our giant Aboriginal bureaucracy, 30 land councils and 3000 Aboriginal corporations cannot do already.

She told Parliament: “I have been to communities where babies are drinking sweet cordial instead of water because it’s cheaper … Do not tell me that the proposition that the Prime Minister has outlined is not needed in this country.”

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney says in some communities babies are drinking sweet cordial instead of water because it’s cheaper. Picture: Martin Ollman

Seriously, Linda? Even if this cordial claim were true, how does it prove we need the Voice?

Burney is the minister. She’s heard this cordial story. She even launched a report last year into water quality in some Aboriginal communities.

Does she really need to wait for a Voice to tell her to fix it?

Mind you, I also wonder about mothers who chose to feed their babies cordial, even if it is cheaper than water. Will the Voice make them more responsible parents?

But I wonder if Burney’s story is even true.

Does Linda Burney really need to wait for a Voice to tell her to fix the issue? Picture: David Swift

I’m assuming she means babies are drinking unmixed cordial, straight from the bottle. If it’s mixed with water, the mums could simply stop adding the cordial and save that money.

But I checked. The biggest problem with Burney’s story is that cordial isn’t cheaper than water, or shouldn’t be.

Even on special at the discount Aldi chain, I found cordial selling for no less than $2.09 a litre.

But Woolies sells 10 litres of bottled water for just 64c a litre, less than a third of the price. Bulk water would be even cheaper.

Sure, there won’t be a Woolworths in the community Burney visited, but it can’t be hard to organise for bottled water to be sent in instead of cordial for babies, if you don’t trust the water in the taps or rain tanks.

The parents could do it themselves. The local land council could help. No Voice needed. No need to change our Constitution.

So I’m calling bull on Burney. Is this cordial story really why Australians should be divided by race in our Constitution for the rest of our lives?