Rita Panahi: It’s obtuse in the extreme to pretend Voice referendum is not race-based

Australia’s race discrimination commissioner Chin Tan is just another member of the increasingly desperate “yes” camp trying to browbeat the nation into backing a divisive, racial proposition.

Australia’s race discrimination commissioner, Chin Tan, is indulging in some Orwellian doublespeak when he decries the race based referendum becoming about race.

Or perhaps he’s just hopelessly misinformed about what is being proposed by the so-called indigenous voice to parliament.

Or, more likely, he’s just another member of the increasingly desperate “yes” camp trying to browbeat the nation into backing a divisive and by definition racial proposition.

How can a referendum seeking to enshrine racial privilege into the Constitution not be about race?

How can a proposal that would fundamentally change the value of citizenship for one group of people based on nothing other than their ancestry not become a “racialized” discussion?

It’s akin to having a referendum about becoming a republic and condemning any talk of the monarchy or heads of state.

Race discrimination commissioner Chin Tan is indulging in doublespeak. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

It’s obtuse in the extreme to pretend this referendum is not race-based but that is precisely what the commissioner has claimed.

“(The) Voice in itself is not racist and it does not racialise Australia”, Mr Tan said.

“The referendum by itself...from a human rights perspective, and from the jurisprudence point of view, is not about a race issue and ought not to be.”

A proposal that seeks to give one group of people an additional say — one that can be legally weaponsied — based on their indigenous heritage is not a race issue?

Embedding toxic identity politics and race obsessions into the constitution was always a terrible idea.

It is racial by design and prioritises what should matter least; a person’s ethnicity, something they have zero control over.

Where is the race commissioner when Warren Mundine and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price cop ugly racial abuse for backing the “no” camp?

The manner in which the “yes” camp have conducted themselves has been nothing short of appalling.

They have sought to firstly guilt Australians into backing this contentious measure.

When the appeal to emotion began faltering they turned to intimidation and hyperbole to bully an increasingly reluctant populace to back “the Voice”.

You can be sure of one thing, if the “yes” vote wins then as stated in the “Uluru statement” we can look forward to more racial division with “truth telling” and “treaty” to follow.