IN listening to much of the discussion put forward by both sides, I have wondered if I am missing some things concerning the Voice referendum.
Rather, ashamedly, I admit that until a week or so back I had never read our Constitution.
In reading it, I pondered who is covered by the Australian Constitution, and rightly so it is Australian citizens.
The original Constitution, written back in the 1900s, did not include Aboriginals as being citizens eligible for recognition. This was overwhelmingly rectified by the majority of states and voters in the 1967 referendum when they were finally recognised as citizens in the full sense of the constitutional rights.
I believe that means that politicians should be affording to them the same benefits that all Australian citizens are entitled to, including health care, housing, education, etc. I do acknowledge that the cultural differences make some of these benefits difficult to provide, but never impossible for proactive governments.
So, to my way of thinking, solutions to the problems that the Voice is supposed to correct are already available, but not being implemented, by the various state and federal parliaments for their respective responsibilities.
Consequently, the impediments to solving the issues the Indigenous communities face today are due to the inaction of political parties of all persuasions not listening to their constituents, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.
This is not something new in current political spheres, think of issues like our new hospital that never seems to make the list of tasks to be completed, we just get drip fed, or the disgusting state of our roads that nobody politically seems to do anything about.
I think the issues lie in politicians not having the will power to care about all Australians, including the smaller percentage of our population that is Indigenous.
Politically, the Voice will just be another layer of bureaucracy that we all have to fund in these difficult times and this will allow our pollies to blame any inaction on their part onto the Voice committee.
We do not need more committees, we need more action.
With these thoughts, I will be voting “no” on October 14.
Chris Loneragan
Swan Hill
