There’s a very good reason that Australians are so averse to changing our Constitution: politicians keep asking them to. Tony Abbott’s most devastating come-back to the 1991 Republic referendum was simple and brutal: Do you trust politicians?
We didn’t then, and we do so even less, now.
And why would we? The entire campaign for the “Voice” referendum is moored wholly in lies and obfuscation. Obfuscation, in that they’re openly telling us not to worry about the detail, just vote and let the politicians sort out the rest. Lies, in that in the next breath, they solemnly assure us that the detail’s all there.
That’s a blatant lie, and Opposition leader Peter Dutton has finally grown a pair and called it out.
Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is “treating people like mugs” over a lack of information on the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
In an open letter, Mr Dutton asked 15 questions he said needed to be answered before Australians could make an informed decision at the upcoming referendum.
Unlike the Nationals’ David Littleproud, Dutton has to date hedged his bets on the Voice. No doubt largely because of the vicious punishment meted out to Littleproud by the media-political class, for daring to dissent from the elites’ received position. We all know how this is going to go (and already is): anyone who publicly disagrees is screamed at as a “racist”. Even, ironically enough, prominent Aboriginal Australians like Jacinta Price and Warren Mundine, who are adamantly opposed to the Voice.
Dutton is going to have to take a stand, sooner or later. For the time being, though, he’s obviously trying to play both sides of the debate: not taking the “No” stand, but not exactly supporting the “Yes” case. It’s the weakest stance on a referendum since George “Yes-No” Reid’s bizarre speech on Federation.
Mr Dutton accused the prime minister of failing to outline concrete details of the planned constitutional change ahead of this year’s referendum.
The vote could be held as soon as August.
Mr Dutton said the Voice would fail unless Australians were given more detail […]
“People won’t lightly change the constitution — even if they believe in the cause — unless there’s a compelling argument to do so.”
Mr Dutton said the prime minister was making a grave mistake by not outlining the government’s preferred model ahead of the vote.
“By starving the Australian people of the basic detail of the Voice, the prime minister is really setting the Voice up for a fail and setting back reconciliation and that’s something that he has to answer to the Australian public on.”
In fact, it’s the entire concept of the “Voice” which is setting back reconciliation. It’s a particularly nasty piece of race-baiting garbage politics which, no matter which way it goes, is only dividing Australians deeper than ever.
No wonder they’re having to lie through their teeth to try and bullshit Australians into voting for it.
Uluru Dialogue’s senior engagement officer Eddie Synot said […]
“The detail exists, the detail is there and there’s more detail to come to be able to inform people about how the referendum works and what the Voice is going to do.”
ABC Australia
The first statement is a lie, the second the dodgiest reassurance since Harvey Weinstein said, “Trust me, I’m a movie producer”.
There is literally no detail in the referendum question — the only detail that matters.
There is no draft legislation.
There is no official policy statement.
The so-called “detail” that the lying activists keep pointing to is nothing more than a report compiled by a couple of activist academics.
So, the basic question Australians need to ask themselves is simple:
Why won’t they tell us the detail? If they’re lying to us about this, what else are they hiding and lying about?
