Last Post: Archie, the voice, and welcome to country

If everyone in Australia turned off the telly tonight and put on Archie Roach’s album Charcoal Lane instead, we would be a better country tomorrow. RIP Archie.

Ross Clarke, Eumundi, Qld

We are told we do not have to choose between “improving people’s lives and amending the Constitution – we can do both with a simple voice vote”. A better question would be: “How is the Constitution stopping Indigenous people or anyone else improving their life?”

N.J. Ford, Kambah, ACT

Anthony Albanese seems to think he will be able to achieve a majority yes vote on the voice without giving us details. Could someone please point out to the PM that his party received less than a third of the primary vote in the election and with a referendum vote one does not need to preference. So stop spinning your wheels Albo and, in the immortal words of James Carville: “It’s the economy stupid.”

Jennifer Ashton, Gold Coast, Qld

You don’t need to amend the Constitution to legislate the voice but, if you do, you embed privilege based on ancestry.

Paul Sullivan, Mawson, ACT

A step in the right direction, Paige Taylor? For whom? Not the non-Indigenous Australians who get no special voice. You simply cannot change the Constitution to favour one race over another. It’s discriminatory and inequitable.

John Partridge, Balgowlah Heights, NSW

Won’t the voice to parliament want a say on every issue? Penny Wong said she wants a bigger Indigenous voice in our foreign policy. What will this mean?

E. Moore, Stepney, SA

I do not need someone else to welcome me to my country. And changing Australia’s Constitution to give special rights to one racial group will not be an end in itself, merely another step in the steady march towards greater discrimination against people like myself. Where will this end?

Paul Tooker, Bald Knob, Qld

Thank you, Janet Albrechtsen, for a brilliant article. The vision of a Peter FitzSimons/Lisa Wilkinson fridge roster was priceless.

Rhoda Silber, Manly, NSW

Whatever the outcome of the investigation into the New York trade commissioner’s job, surely the position needs to be abolished immediately, saving taxpayers a huge amount of money with no likely effect on NSW trading figures. It was clearly designed to reward rather than to serve.

Steve Povey, Woolgoolga, NSW