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C'mon people. What's the point of voting "no" on the Voice to Parliament? What are you scared of?
ACM's polling, reported by the most brilliant monotreme on the planet, Karen Barlow, revealed support for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament is at perilously low levels in regional and rural Australia. A massive 55 per cent of the 10,000 voters surveyed expected to vote "no" on referendum day.
Here is one good thing and one bad thing. Voters want much more information. And here's how one regional community is managing that need. You'll remember the campaign for the Victorian seat of Indi, when independent Cathy McGowan knocked off Liberal incumbent Sophie Mirabella. Locals were pissed off about being taken for granted and formed Voices for Indi. Now, in Euroa, which has bits of the Indi vibe, a bunch of locals have formed what I'll call Voices for the Voice but they call #EuroaForYes.
They have a shopfront on the main drag, Binney Street. They hold picnics. They hand out corflutes and pamphlets and are up for answering any and all questions. Euroa attracts tourists as well, so the Voice is out there doing its thing. Their approach, says Euroa local Kate Auty, is to keep the chat from politicians to a dull roar and for fresh informed locals to take the lead. Theirs is definitely a community campaign. Keep forums to a minimum where you are just going to have ranty ranting and have events where everyone can chat, have a sandwich and a cup of tea and discover what the Voice is really about.
And here's the bad thing. Politicians on the "no" side delete any kind of response from the "yes" side from their social media pages. Voters are responding to the strategic and early negative "Noalition", which disseminates lies and deception, a massive irresponsible scare campaign. Take our land. Stop us from visiting Kakadu and Uluru. It will have the capacity to make laws, or to veto legislation. Or, if we make special laws for Aboriginal people on the basis that they were here first, then that is racism and divisive, pure and simple.
Remind you of other bulldust? Remember when we were told legalising equal marriage would mean people would marry their dogs? Or that "social outcomes" for children of same-sex parents are "unemployment", "sexually transmitted diseases" and "drug use/abuse". Or that we could marry the Sydney Harbour Bridge? No thanks, a little inflexible for my taste. None of that ever came to pass but it certainly frightened people in the meantime. And look at the buyer's remorse experienced by the British who voted for Brexit and were devastated when it came back to bite them.
Swear to God, I wish we could get the cast of Come From Away to come sing Philippians 4:6 to the lunatics from the right. Be anxious about nothing.
As Professor Tom Calma AO said earlier this year: "The Voice will be an advisory body. It will have no ability to hinder parliamentary processes, it will not have any veto power and cannot introduce legislation or change it."
I'm a "yes" person because the vast majority of First Nations people in this country believe a Voice to Parliament will improve the state of this country's first nations. But 72 per cent of Australians say the government has not done enough to explain the Voice to the community. Fair enough. We can do this ourselves instead of relying on politicians.
Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition's Thomas Mayo was entrusted with the Uluru Statement from the Heart and has travelled Australia for six years, spreading its message. He only asks Australians to look at the 92 words to be added to the Constitution. It is, he says, just a way to ensure that Australians finally recognise Indigenous peoples in the Constitution for their long, long connection to the land and to do that in a way to make sure their voices are heard on the matters that relate to them. Of course, Indigenous people are concerned with health, education, employment and looking after country and those are the things the Voice would speak on, he says.
"Once we explain the history and the logic, Australians tend to support it," he said.
Take a leaf from Euroa and from Thomas Mayo. Get out on the main street. Spread the yes.
HAVE YOUR SAY: How can you contribute to a vote for "yes"? Which non-politicians should be out campaigning for the Voice? What work should the government do to make information more accessible? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
- Phew. The Reserve Bank of Australia left the cash rate at 4.1 per cent because inflation slowed to 5.6 per cent in May. Economists predict the economy will slow sharply in the second half of the year.
- The Australian Sports Brain Bank reported the world's first diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in a female athlete, that of much loved AFLW player Heather Anderson. Researchers have warned "she won't be the last". Anderson died last year and a coronial inquest is pending.
- Indonesian President Joko Widodo has arrived in Australia with many of his ministers. According to The Diplomat, the two leaders are expected to discuss increased economic and commercial links, in particular, the renewable energy transition, when they meet for the eighth Australia-Indonesia Annual Leaders' Meeting.
THEY SAID IT: "Right now, many people naively believe what they read on social media. When the television became popular, people also believed everything on TV was true. It's how people choose to react and access to information and news that's important, not the mechanisms that distribute them." Irene Wu, Georgetown University
YOU SAID IT: Stephanie writes on the bad behaviour at Lord's: "As an ex-Brit, I found it very disappointing and reinforced my love of being Australian. This is the second thing I've witnessed in the past few days which indicates the English seem to have a short memory. The disallowed catch on day four was said to be adhering to the letter of the law, so they shouldn't complain about Bairstow's stumping. I liken it to Sir Lewis Hamilton saying that the rules of Formula 1 should be changed to end the dominance of Red Bull, he wasn't suggesting any changes when he was winning year after year! Unfortunately, it all comes down to the obscene amount of money involved."
Chris writes: "The English, when it suits, adopt a very self-righteous and hypocritical approach with their whingeing about this dismissal, especially when it is clearly within the laws of cricket to claim the batsman's wicket in this way."
Bruce writes: "Cummings should have called him back; he wasn't attempting a run. Embarrassing; the new underarm. Unfortunately another example of the poor behaviour of our professional cricketers ... there appears to be a feeling amongst our overpaid professional sports people that they are the product; they're not, they are the custodians, the game is the product, and aren't they doing a poor job."