{"id":67073,"date":"2023-08-30T02:02:08","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T02:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celeband.com\/?p=67073"},"modified":"2023-08-30T02:02:08","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T02:02:08","slug":"this-isnt-a-unifying-voice-for-australia-its-the-prime-ministers-voice-for-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celeband.com\/lifestyle\/this-isnt-a-unifying-voice-for-australia-its-the-prime-ministers-voice-for-division\/","title":{"rendered":"This isn\u2019t a unifying Voice for Australia, it\u2019s the prime minister\u2019s Voice for division"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I was asked recently what question I think Australians should have front of mind when they head to the ballot box on October 14. My answer is a simple one: Do you want Australians to be divided in our Constitution?<\/p>\n

The prime minister is about to fire the starter\u2019s gun on the most divisive referendum in our nation\u2019s history. And make no mistake, it is divisive through and through. It\u2019s dividing experts, its dividing politicians, it\u2019s dividing Australians. It rests on the premise that the Voice could effectively represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, but it\u2019s even dividing our communities.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jacinta Nampijinba Price at the WA Liberals for No campaign launch in Perth last week.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Trevor Collens<\/cite><\/p>\n

There will be a lot of noise over the next six weeks about how wonderful and unifying it would be, but strip back all the hype, the celebrity endorsements and corporate sponsorship and consider what we\u2019re voting on.<\/p>\n

If successful, it would insert into the Constitution a chapter and a new body for only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.<\/p>\n

If successful, it would create a new bureaucracy for the Aboriginal industry, those who make their living by claiming to help Indigenous Australians with little accountability.<\/p>\n

If successful, it would mean an extra say for just one group of Australians, based solely on their racial heritage, given the constitutional power to make representations \u2013 not simply advise, as the prime minister claims \u2013 to parliament and executive government.<\/p>\n

The process has been divisive from the start. From the beginning, the goal of those who advocate for the Voice seems to be to divide Australians, to bully those with doubts into agreement and abuse and name-call anyone who doesn\u2019t fall in to line.<\/p>\n

The Uluru Statement from the Heart was not the result of a constitutional convention open to all Indigenous Australians. The Uluru Dialogues divided Indigenous people for an exclusive, invite-only talk-fest for the few.<\/p>\n

The prime minister may not have bothered to read the final report of the Referendum Council, but anyone who has read it knows that \u201cdelegates were invited to each First Nations Regional Dialogue\u201d and from those groups \u201c10 delegates were selected to represent their region together with the convenors and working group leaders\u201d.<\/p>\n

Far from being a \u201cmodest request\u201d that \u201cAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have asked for\u201d, the Uluru Statement is a loaded document signed by just 250 people.<\/p>\n

Before opposition leader Peter Dutton had taken a position, he put sensible and reasonable questions to the prime minister about how the Voice would operate. His questions were ignored.<\/p>\n

Constitutional conservatives, many of whom support the Voice, were left out of the process to create the referendum question. When they raised concerns about the wording, they were accused of being \u201cwhite saviours\u201d who were \u201cjust trying to stay in the spotlight\u201d.<\/p>\n

For disagreeing with them, prominent Yes campaigners who I won\u2019t name called me and other Indigenous No campaigners every name in the book, they\u2019ve accused me of hating Aboriginal people and, just last week, called me a puppet doing a jig.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a unifying Voice for Australia, this isn\u2019t a modest, simple or gracious request, and with no effort made to explain how it would work, it\u2019s all risk and no reward. This is the prime minister\u2019s Voice, it\u2019s the Voice of the Indigenous activists and academics, it is the Voice of division.<\/p>\n

The Yes campaign likes to say this proposal has been supported by \u201cconstitutional conservatives\u201d, but the truth is that this proposal is constitutionally radical. It would enshrine a dangerous and divisive Voice in the Constitution, and that\u2019s not something conservatives can get behind.<\/p>\n

In 2014, while affirming his support for genuine constitutional recognition, then prime minister Tony Abbott said: \u201cThe worst of all outcomes would be dividing our country in an effort to unite it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is exactly what\u2019s already happened.<\/p>\n

More concerned with themselves and getting their names in the history books, the prime minister and prominent Yes campaigners who flank him at every press conference have divided Australia.<\/p>\n

The referendum campaign proper will begin this week, and it will be the most divisive six weeks in our nation\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

I am fighting for a No vote because I already asked myself that simple question, do I want Australians to be divided in our Constitution?<\/p>\n

No. I want to be one together, not two divided.<\/p>\n

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is a Country Liberal Party senator for the Northern Territory and the former deputy mayor of Alice Springs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. I was asked recently what question I think Australians should have front of mind when they head to the ballot box on October 14. My answer is a simple one: Do you want Australians to be divided in our Constitution? 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