A representative group of Indigenous Australians have asked me to join them on a three-step journey towards reconciliation – voice, treaty and truth-telling. Despite the scaremongering from the NO campaign, I believe voting YES will cost me little, and gives them a chance of better outcomes. That’s worth the investment …
You can quibble about the amount of Indigenous support, but it was a protracted process with a lot of input from Aboriginal bodies and individuals that got us to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which was a simple invitation to recognise our First Nations and their place in Australia’s history.
Some want to see more detail, misunderstanding the Constitution’s purpose – the Constitution deals in broad principles, which are used to guide the legislative detail that necessarily follows any change to the Constitution. For example, the Constitution defines what kind of taxes the Commonwealth can levy on citizens, but the detail is in the heaven-only-knows-how-many pages of taxation legislation – imagine having to go to a referendum every time an income tax rate was changed. This is how it works … and paradoxically those screaming loudest for “more detail” are in a position to legislate all the detail they want.
A lot of harsh words have been thrown around during this referendum campaign (and for longer) … it’s true that not everybody who votes NO is a racist, but it is true that racists will vote NO, and I fear that if the referendum fails, it will be racists (and politicians who see this type of approach as the key to gaining power) who are encouraged, rather than those trying to close the gap between Indigenous life outcomes and those of the general public …
I’m voting YES … and, if asked to, will vote YES to treaty and truth-telling as well.
