This letter was written by an ordinary Australian (who shall remain nameless) about ‘The Voice' referendum. I believe it probably sums up pretty well the views of the 'quiet Australians' who don't answer telephone polls and remain quiet for fear of being accused of being racist:
I was born in Australia fifty-four years after the Australian Commonwealth was formed in 1901. Australia is my country as much as it is the country of any other person who was born here.
I haven’t stolen anyone's land. I have purchased legal title to the land I own and have paid it off with the sweat of my brow. To be forced to pay a reparation tax as rent or a special land tax on my land is abhorrent to me.
My paternal grandfather was shot through both legs fighting to defend this nation; my great-grandfather was killed by a shell in the same struggle. My maternal grandfather and two great uncles on both sides gave up four years of their lives to defend Australia against the Germans, who had colonised New Guinea, New Britain, New Ireland, Bougainville and Samoa. Twenty-five years later, the Japanese invaded these countries. My mother served in Bougainville, patching up Aussies who had been shot by the Japanese. My father and two paternal/maternal uncles gave up six years of their lives to fight off the Germans and Japanese, with Dad spending three-and-a-half years as a POW in Germany and coming back weighing eight stone.
Every road, building, home, farm, mine, school, hospital, airport, port, railroad, city and town that exists in Australia was built by European settlers and their descendants. Hunter/gatherer Aborigines built nothing prior to 1788 and have contributed very little to modern Australia. Their hunter/gatherer lifestyle became redundant after European farming and technology arrived here and as the benefits of the first and second industrial revolutions spread through the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, no one in the world chooses to live a hunter/gatherer lifestyle.
Now that the Australian nation has been developed, some aboriginal activists want to take control of it. They are not content to have an equal say in government with the rest of us Australian citizens. They claim they deserve more power, in perpetuity, because some of their ancestors were born here prior to 1788. They label anyone who disagrees with them a racist. What chutzpah!
As currently proposed, 'The Voice' is a blatant con job to replace the government of the people, by the people, for the people, with a race-based veto on everything we do. This will be exercised by twenty-four unelected Aboriginal activists supposedly representing the 3% of the population who claim Aboriginal descent. The effective veto comes from the power of the Voice to delay or hinder the government through the threat of litigation.
Votes in parliament will be traded for the support of the Voice in return for other programs or legislation favourable to the activists who dominate the Aboriginal Voice. In this way, the Voice will be a shadow government able to make demands of the executive, the parliament, the public service and independent statutory offices and agencies not available to any other Australian citizens. It offends the crucial democratic principle that everyone should be equal before the law.
Less than one-third of the 3% of the population who claim Aboriginal descent are living dysfunctional lives in remote areas. We Australians spend $39.5 billion each year trying to fix this problem. The solution is straightforward, although not easy. These Aboriginals need to limit their alcohol intake, provide a stable environment for their kids, and ensure they go to school. Do this every day for twenty years, and the gap between the dysfunctional Aboriginals and the rest of us will disappear. We don’t need to change our constitution for this to happen.
Not only am I fed up with being welcomed to my own country, I find the implication in the 'Welcome to Country' ceremony and in the proposed 'Voice' that I and my family are somehow not entitled to be here as equal, legitimate Australian citizens offensive and insulting.
I acknowledge the early settlers who came to this land which had stood undeveloped for over 50,000 years and who, in less than two hundred years, transformed it into one of the richest countries on Earth. Together, let’s enjoy and build on the legacy they left us.
