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Well, it’s the New Year and it’s Referendum ‘game on’, just as we knew it would be, but will it be a level playing field? No, of course not. Linda Burney, the Minister for Indigenous Australians, has said so herself. In the Sydney Morning Herald’s greeting to the New Year, Anthony Galloway writes “Voice referendum as ‘early as August’, Burney reveals”1 The Albanese Labor government will send Australians to the referendum polls “as early as August”. However, the SMH is very instructive to the keen-eyed and critical observer.
Burney states that “the official Yes campaign is likely to launch late next month, meaning the campaign will ramp up just weeks before parliament votes to set the referendum date.” So there will be an ‘official Yes campaign’, presumably government sponsored, but if there is to be no funding for either side, how then is this “official Yes campaign” to be funded and who will be running it? Doesn’t this run contrary to the government’s clearly stated position as explained in its media release of December 2022 as follows:
The Government believes campaigns in the Voice Referendum should be organised and funded by the Australian community, and does not intend to fund a yes and no campaign for the forthcoming Voice referendum.2
It would appear that, apart from the ongoing ABC and SBS propaganda onslaught (taxpayer funded, in other words), the government will be funding an ‘official Yes campaign’ but as suspected, there will be nothing for the No campaign. Further, the SMH articles tell us Minister Burney has said
the Yes campaign would be an ‘alliance model’ bringing together different groups and people, including the Uluru Dialogue and From the Heart organisations, as well as the Uphold and Recognise organisation, which makes the conservative case for recognising First Nations people in the Constitution.
Really? We know some of the other usual suspects, but who is this ‘Uphold and Recognise’3 group? It’s an organisation co-founded by Liberal shadow minister for indigenous Australians Julian Leeser in 2015. Their website says:
Uphold & Recognise is a non-profit organisation that promotes discussion of how we can recognise Indigenous Australians without disturbing the way that the Constitution operates. The Uluru Statement from the Heart and the Referendum Council’s final report call for Indigenous Australians to be empowered to take responsibility for their own affairs through, among other things, a first nations voice to Parliament. Uphold & Recognise supports these calls.
Note that it does not say without any changes to the Constitution, just the way that it ‘operates’ – very misleading and disingenuous language indeed. ‘Uphold and Recognise’ clearly supports the ‘Voice’ to Parliament.
So with his intense and central involvement with Uphold and Recognise, which spans seven years and clearly supports the ‘Voice’, here’s the question: How can Julian Leeser then impartially be the Liberal’s Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians? Wouldn’t you call that a conflict of interest, or is it just his ‘area of expertise’? Julian Leeser has been instrumental in developing the ‘Voice’ process for years! In an article in The Australian on 20/1/20214 Leeser, who, along with Labor senator Pat Dodson, was co-chair of the ‘Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ said: “We recommended a process of Voice co-design jointly led by Indigenous people and government.”
Given Leeser’s extensive involvement in Uphold and Recognise, and the ‘Voice’ process, how will all of this influence the position of the federal Liberal Party? It’s not looking good. Will Dutton take the easy way out and declare a conscience vote, thereby further assuring the demise of the Liberal Party with true conservatives?
In addition, the Uphold and Recognise website notes they have “strategic partnerships” with “the Australian Catholic University’s PM Glynn Institute and Reconciliation Australia as well as corporate partners, who currently include Afterpay and the Commonwealth Bank.” A quick look at the ACU’s ‘PM Glynn Institute’5 and ‘Reconciliation Australia’6 websites clearly show where they stand on the ‘Voice’ – 100 per cent in favour. And one presumes that these organisations, including the Commonwealth Bank, contribute funds to this Uphold and Recognise ‘not for profit’.
The SMH article is worth a critical reading in full for its myriad hidden messages. For example, Burney says, “Once that all mobilises, I think we’re going to have a country that’s ready for change,” In other words, the government will support a radical one-sided propaganda campaign to deluge poor Australians! Burney claims that “the Voice would not have veto power over the parliament, a position backed by a government-selected group of constitutional experts.” Of course the ‘government-selected experts’ are in agreement with the government – that’s why they’re selected! Burney also says, “The sovereignty of a (sic) parliament is not affected” yet other ‘constitutional experts’, not ‘selected by government’, clearly know that it will be, and eventually, so will the sovereignty of Australia.
Finally, Burney claims that “I think it’s OK to have different points of view, of course, we’re going to have to, but the arguments have to be factual. And they’re not.” So here we have Burney already claiming that anything that opposes the ‘Voice’ is not ‘factual’. And further, she patronisingly and condescendingly claims that “many of the arguments against it were ‘a little ill-informed’”, so here we have more of the same. Burney and the Albanese government will simply claim that any opposition to the ‘Voice’ is ‘not factual’ and is ‘ill-informed’, indeed, “misinformation” as their ‘Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022’ claims, without them needing or bothering to provide any evidence whatsoever, because the Voice is ‘all about the vibe’!
The Voice referendum is looming as a dystopian nightmare where we, the ill-informed and relatively powerless masses of Australia, are pitted against a manipulative government, obscure not-for-profits and wealthy corporate propaganda machinery that has been steadily and quietly working away for years to bring us to this point. What can the poor citizenry do to oppose this in the face of such overwhelming power?
2 https://ministers.ag.gov.au/media-centre/next-steps-towards-voice-referendum-01-12-2022
3 http://www.upholdandrecognise.com/
4 https://www.julianleeser.com.au/news/community-input-must-be-heart-voice-process/
5 https://www.acu.edu.au/about-acu/institutes-academies-and-centres/pm-glynn-institute
6 https://www.reconciliation.org.au/
In years to come this will all be written up in textbooks as the most undemocratic referendum to have ever been held.
I wonder if the Australian people will fall for it. My present thoughts are that they will but I live in hope of a great awakening.
I’m happy to be proved wrong, but I fear the Australian people will fall for this one, and all it will prove to be is a vehicle for the activists, and an instrument of division – always assuming it doesn’t become ATSIC Mk 2……….
@melb – we can live in hope.
But what is Plan B?
It’s true there will be no government funding for either a Yes or No campaign. But isn’t the government going to fund a Voice “education” campaign? It will of course be rigorously factual and totally free of any misinformation. Just a helpful government imitative.
Yes that’s right Doug. Completely factual, just like that pink pig that is presently flying past my window.
@melb – I read that they were using volunteers to organise local gatherings, bbq’s etc under their local councils!!!!
“What people really want to know is not the nitty-gritty detail. What people want to know is why we need the Voice, how it will be formed.
Asked whether the Voice would be able to table reports to parliament, Burney said: “We’re still working out how the Voice will interact with the parliament.”
The comments above by Ms Burney to the SMH should terrify us for if she and her ilk had the “nitty gritty” they would be belting us over the head with it, morning, noon, and night, and –we are still working out how the voice will interact with the Parliament– means that they really haven’t a bloody clue and are making it up as they go along and want us to hand everything to them on a plate made from solid gold. Poor Fellow my country.
I believe the ‘Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022 has been referred to committee and has not yet been passed into law. The Opposition had better investigate the meaning of “Misinformation” before it is passed into law.
The Government also indirectly funds publication and TV Series which abound in misinformation and deliberate distortions which are already being promoted , Also the Government is now promoting a Week of support and organised propaganda starting 20 February. 2023.
It is clear that Julian Leeser is failing his duty as Shadow Attorney General in that he is not making the public aware of the problems and unfairness of the Government’s actions.
@John
Well summarised.
Thank you.
You are spot on David Barton with the warning “The Voice referendum is looming as a dystopian nightmare”.
Alarmingly the nightmare has been developing under years of Coalition government and Scott Morrison who refused to engage in the culture wars has vacated the field to the revolutionaries who do engage. At a public meeting in the Hornsby RSL building about a decade ago Julian Leeser and Noel Pearson spoke for more aboriginal recognition. What is it about the Liberal Party in the Berowra and Hornsby area that members have preselected both Julian Leeser and Matt Kean as conservative party representatives?
To defend Australia as we know it the last line of defence must be against any change to the constitution. The constitution at present commences with “We the people” and that “we” includes aboriginal and mixed race Australians, British settler descendents, and migrants. It is so inclusive that even the ever obliging Tony Abbott must eventually see that no change to the constitution is needed.
Please let us not start the lawfare that will lead to the break up of Australia.
What more advice could The Voice possibly offer the government than already provided (and triggered a positive response), by this outfit: https://ministers.pmc.gov.au/burney/2022/joint-council-closing-gap-more-120-million-indigenous-health-infrastructure
Linda Burney happens to be a key player in many of these powerful lobby organisations, all government-funded, with the Coalition of Peaks presumably at the top of the pile, yet she has the hide to claim ad nauseam that indigenous people (“First Nations”) don’t have a say in anything. Patently absurd, nothing but shameless professional victimhood. My big hope is that enough of our fellow citizens will exercise healthy skepticism, and take the time to check this out — all it takes is a smidgin of critical thought, and some simple Googling.