IN last week’s Bunyip (August 30), some lazy and spiteful words were published about the Voice to Parliament and those seeking to advance this cause.
These words were the cheap and lazy tagline: “If you don’t know, vote no”.
It is clear the campaign against the Voice has resorted to the oldest tricks in the book, inciting fear.
And what fear is greater than the fear of the unknown?
Not only is it cunning but it’s also deeply cynical.
If you don’t know, for goodness sakes, find out.
Why this idea that we are a nation incapable of being properly informed?
Who lack the capacity to inform ourselves and instead should never seek change.
I would suggest an alternative vision of Australia.
A nation that is built on the ideal of mateship.
Trusting and looking out for one another in times of hardship.
There are some amongst us whose battle is increasingly hard. A group of Australians who have been all but left behind, without proper education, without the promise of safety and without the freedoms that many of us enjoy, but most importantly without a voice.
Giving these Australians a voice does not take away ours, in fact it strengthens them.
The only division here is the division sown by those who would seek to divide us, lest we realise that alone we are powerless but together we can make sure no Australian is left behind.
I have faith in my fellow Australians that where we lack the answers to a question we go out and find them.
If you have not read the Uluru Statement, I encourage you to do so.
Those words are words of hope and unity, not fear and division.
Don’t give in to these spiteful words of cynicism.
Instead, ask what kind of nation you would like to live in. Embrace hope where they seek to instil fear and on October 14, vote yes.
Isaac Solomon, Gawler
