Lying for the Admiralty is both a compelling take on the political climate behind the founding of Australia and an impressively researched page-turner. Author Margaret Cameron-Ash shows that Cook turned his hand to spying and deception, even to the extent of omitting Sydney Harbour and Bass Strait from the maps he charted

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As Justice Kirby wrote post-Mabo, 'the common law of Australia will in future be influenced by legal authority, policy, principle and applicable rules of international law'. None grasp this better than those seeking to embed the Voice in our Constitution, as it would let them bypass democratic procedures and have their agendas endorsed by sympathetic courts and judges

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One of the major arguments for the creation of the Australian nation in 1901 was that it would produce something unique in the world, what our first Commonwealth Prime Minister Edmund Barton called: “a nation for a continent and a continent for a nation”. This was especially attractive because of its implications for national secu­rity. […]

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As Justice Kirby wrote post-Mabo, 'the common law of Australia will in future be influenced by legal authority, policy, principle and applicable rules of international law'. None grasp this better than those seeking to embed the Voice in our Constitution, as it would let them bypass democratic procedures and have their agendas endorsed by sympathetic courts and judges

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The Aboriginal establishment doesn't want to be just one respected minority group among many, seeing themselves as retaining the rights of those whose lands were invaded and are now illegally occupied. Voters in the proposed referendum need to recognise the ultimate objectives are establishing a politically separate race and, potentially, the break-up of Australia

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Land under Aboriginal native title now amounts to 49.3 per cent of the Australian continent, with another 13.4 per cent in the pipeline. Although ordinary Australian citizens will be paying all the bills, under the Makarrata treaties proposed by the Voice taxpayers would nonetheless be trespassers in what was once their own country. With talk of the Voice front and centre, this must be an issue

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Legal academics should know better than to claim Aborigines were denied the franchise before 1967, which isn't true and never has been. They had the vote in NSW, Victoria, SA and Tasmania without any qualification. Only in Queensland and WA, where state governments imposed property qualifications, were they largely disenfranchised, as was the case for impecunious whites

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Voice advocates Megan Davis and Marcia Langton disclosed the question they want put in a constitutional referendum: 'Do you want to remove racist provisions from our Constitution?' If the public fails to approve, they say, the loss would brand Australia as 'racist and self-consciously and deliberately so'. In other words, nice country you have here, pity if something happens to its reputation

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Linda Burney let the cat out of the bag when she admitted 'a complicated referendum question will doom decades of work towards constitutional recognition'. So there you have it: the government does not want to reveal or discuss the details of the Voice’s structure before the referendum is held. If ever there was a case of caveat emptor, this is it

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If 'cultural healing, self-determination and empowerment' become the guiding principles in remote communities, as Voice advocates demand, the disgraceful dysfunction that characterises so many will become even more deeply entrenched. Meanwhile, Aboriginal children will be abused and die by their own hands while elders and white supporters blame anyone but themselves

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