WITHIN a few weeks after Donald Trump’s inauguration as President I became deeply concerned.
‘Alternative facts’ and ‘fake news’ were becoming accepted as a new reality.
Here it is now in the letter from John Loiteron (Why I’m voting ‘No’, June 14) in The Bunyip.
Mr Loiteron claims that he will be voting NO in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament because, and I summarize his dot points:
• “It will not close the appalling gaps in health.” Correct – it will not close the gaps immediately. But by voting YES, there is a real chance of closing the gaps in the long run. Here’s the question. Why are there such huge gaps? Because all the programs (like throwing more money at the problems) were designed by we ‘white fellas’ who are always convinced that we know best! Take for example the Howard government’s Intervention.
• “It will divide Australians along racial lines.” We seem to have forgotten that Al Grassby, the ‘father’ of multiculturalism, was severely criticized because people feared that Multiculturalism would divide the nation. And now, 40 years or so later, we are proud of being one of the most successful multicultural nations on earth. One thing I do know is that the gap has decreased and that relationships between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians have improved enormously in the last 70 years or so. A YES vote will speed up closing the gaps that still exist.
• “It will set up a permanent Indigenous body …… that could undermine democracy.” The reality is that Parliament will have a veto power over all recommendations from the Voice. I wonder how YES could possibly undermine democracy?
• “We don’t buy a house sight unseen …The Constitution is far more important than a house.” Yes indeed. But we do have children ‘sight unseen’, and we are educated, accept employment and fall in love without fully knowing the consequences. Some risks are worth taking for the common good in the long run. Will not a Yes vote be for the common good of this fractious nation? Let’s accept the implications of the Uluru Statement which gently pleads that ‘we walk together’?
• “We voted ‘Yes’ in 1967 to treat Indigenous people as equals.” Now here is some blatant ‘fake news’. The 1967 referendum was actually designed so that “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would be counted as part of the population and the Commonwealth would be able to make laws for them”. Now, for the first time ever we are being asked to LISTEN seriously to the request of the vast majority of Indigenous people that we move closer towards equality by voting YES.
What I find deeply disturbing is the vicious fake news that is being circulated.
Here’s some of what I have heard.
“Only Indigenous people are allowed to vote on the Referendum.”; “We will all have to pay 10% of the value of our properties to the Aboriginals.”; “They are demanding their own State”; “There are fake signatures on the Uluru Statement.”
Wow. And the real problem is that so many people are believing the lies.
Typical destructive fear mongering again.
The Uluru Statement from the Heart and all its implications invites us all to walk together towards a better future.
That’s why I’m voting Yes.
Brian Polkinghorn, Gawler South
