Rita Panahi: Democracy-denying Allan government ignoring will of the people with Voice plan
A clear majority of Victorians rejected the racial division of the Indigenous Voice to parliament, but that hasn’t stopped the democracy-denying, culture war warriors of the Jacinta Allan government.
Rita Panahi
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A clear majority of Victorians rejected the racial division of the Indigenous Voice to parliament.
But the democracy-denying, culture war warriors of the Jacinta Allan government plan to ignore the will of the people and, at considerable cost, legislate a permanent Indigenous Voice to state parliament.
The so-called “First Peoples’ Assembly” was first formed in 2018 to negotiate a treaty with the state government and has already received hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds.
This week we learned the Allan government will make the body permanent despite Victorians rejecting the Voice.
Only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, who bother to participate in the process, get a vote in electing 33 members. In 2019 only seven per cent of eligible voters bothered participating, meaning some members elected to the body had fewer than 40 first preference votes. That’s a long way from the almost 2.2 million Victorians who voted “no” in the referendum.
More than 54 per cent of Victorians voted “no” in the October 2023 referendum despite the fact that the cashed-up “yes” camp outspent the “no” campaign by more than two to one.
The ‘yes’ camp had the support of the corporate world, every AFL club, most sporting leagues, academia as well as the celebrity, activist and political classes.
And they still lost, badly, with just over 60 per cent of Australians rejecting the politics of racial division and privilege.
Given their relatively meagre resources, the “no” camp was particularly austere with its advertising spend in Victoria.
If it were an even playing field I have little doubt the “no” vote in this state would’ve rivalled, and perhaps surpassed, that seen in South Australia where just over 64 per cent voted “no”.
The Allan government will also introduce a treaty bill; something else that the Victorian electorate never voted for but will nevertheless be saddled with before the next election.
But according to the hapless premier, the race division and endless culture wars of Victorian Labor are just “common sense” and not at all a betrayal of the Victorian people.
If the Liberals want a chance at forming government they need to be loudly, unequivocally and unapologetically opposed to the voice, treaty and other measures that seek to divide this state by race.
Opposition leader Brad Battin made the right call when he said: “Trying to introduce legislation to have a voice to parliament here in Victoria, after Victorians have already said no, flies in the face of democracy.”
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist
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