The referendum day, why did I vote Yes?
I just declare, my aim in life is to be aware and avoid ignorance.
I certainly voted YES because that is the right thing to do but I also have some questions:
What does the referendum question say?
“A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
Do you approve this proposed alteration?”
That seems like a very decent amendment, I am surprised why wait till 2023 and why it needed a referendum?
What Voice means and why does it have a capital V?
“The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, also known as the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, the First Nations Voice or simply the Voice, is a proposed Australian federal advisory body to comprise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, to represent the views of Indigenous communities.”
The most important word in this paragraph is : ADVISORY
And capital V because obviously it is the Voice, an important one !!
Third question: is the advisory voice mandatory?
This is the most important one:
“It’s important to note that they are just an advisory body — it will not be able to compel a government of the day to enact, retract, or amend policy — it will have no extra powers other than to give advice to the government.”
So if this is only an advisory body and only comments about their requests and needs and the government could easily prevail, why a referendum? Why all these shows and debates about dividing the nation, weakening democracy etc?
Politicians do what they want to do, always have done and will do as they are a different breed, I support the Voice with the capital V because it seems fair, and it has been unfair they didn’t have this already and I don’t understand why! In Iran all minority religions including Zoroastrianism, Jewidisem and Christianity have their members at the parliament ( you probably ask why not Baha’i s, I would say even though I don’t agree with the attitude of the government in Iran against them but I see Baha’i as a made-up religion by British, the same as the church of England and many more divisions in Christianity because that’s what British do, divide and rule)
So if Iran as you call it a third world country not only has advisory bodies for different religious groups, also has representatives at the parliament which vote actively for their own people, so the question is why we didn’t have a very similar system, a system seems sensible and Just with a capital J, already in Australia and why such a big and costly show around it?
Two scenarios and one answer:
If the outcome of the referendum is No, the government says discrimination against indigenous is not systematic and that’s what people want.
If the outcome is Yes, the government does their dirty work regardless, and blame people for voting yes. ( you need to remember this Voice is only ADVISORY and the government takes into account those things they want to regardless)
And the answer:
As people of this country we are better to stay together than divided by politicians. Saying YES that we would like to do the sensible and a right things. What politicians want to do later on, it’s their own doing and not ours.
I despise politics and politicians but I urge people to stay together. Maybe the next generation will make better people for their time than what we did for us.
Rymos
The referendum day
14/10/2023