For too long now, laws have eroded free speech in Australia, and the indigenous Voice would see that liberty further constrained. Of the numerous objections that can and should be raised, the prospect of a nation divided into those who can air claims and those who will find it in their best interest to remain mute is perhaps the most insidious consequence

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Most young Australians have been spoon-fed the ‘invasion = colonisation’ and ‘frontier wars/genocide’ mantras from primary school through to university. Education is a powerful thing, and whoever controls it controls the future. Is it any wonder, amid a declining appreciation of what it means to be Australian, the likes of Bruce Pascoe make out like bandits? 

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As sovereign individuals we have agency, but with agency comes responsibility, which is why the Uluru Statement is first of all an exercise in the authors' self-deception. Rather than acknowledge incarceration rates, violence and community dysfunction as ills that can only be remedied from within, they are packaged as scars of external oppression visited upon the blameless

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The Uluru Statement falsely portrays people of Aboriginal and British descent as long-standing enemies, and it misrepresents British, Australian and international law. When the Aboriginal political class demands 'a more inclusive and nuanced narrative' no one should be in any doubt that, far from producing a more unified nation, it will achieve the precise opposite

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It's such a nebulous term I can never hear it without Paul Simon’s words coming to mind – ‘the nearer your destination, the more you’re slip sliding away’. If we are never told what this 'reconciliation' is, how will we know when we get there? Looking to the likes of Marcia Langton and Tom Calma for guidance doesn't promise much in the way of enlightenment

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For a whitefella to make a comment or have an opinion about Indigenous issues is considered ‘cultural imperialism’ and therefore inappropriate, even ‘racist’, by the city-dwelling, university-educated, grant-fed elite. Meanwhile, as abused children take their own lives in remote Aboriginal communities, their only response is to blame white privilege

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Supporters say a constitutionally endorsed Voice takes up where the paternalistic model has failed, arguing we should allow Indigenous people to determine their own future, with government and taxpayer input limited to writing cheques as demanded. That sounds like wishful thinking, not to mention throwing good money after bad

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To imagine the much talked about 'indigenous voice' will do anything to lift the lot of Aborigines, especially those in remote communities, is to embrace delusion as a vocation. The obstacles begin with 'Dreamtime law', range through the obligation to share with kin and climax in the misconception that 'tribe' trumps 'clan'

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Suddenly, Australians of the wrong colour are being banished from their nation's natural landmarks and wonders -- Ayers Rock/Uluru, to note the best known case -- amid much palaver about 'sacred' sites. Let us not be deceived. This is all about power, control and, of course, money

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Known as 'New Identifiers', their numbers help to explain why each latest census records an ever-growing number of respondents who, for any number of reasons, identify as 'Aboriginal'. Consider, for example, Tasmania, where fecundity goes nowhere near explaining the indigenous population rocketing from 671 in 1971 to 19,625 in 2016

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