Last year’s election of a progressive federal parliament had many of us excited that obstacles to change, erected by an increasingly hard-right cabal of LNP and media jocks, could finally be swept away.
Australia could return to rational policies on climate change and integrity, to restore rules-based government. There would be fairness for First Nations people, as well as women. We had thousands of gripes with the Morrison government, and with hindsight, our hopes the tables had turned could prove unrealistic.
The election of a new government did not prevent the Lehrmann court case ending in fiasco. I was grateful for Brittainy Higgins’ statement listing the difficulties victims encounter in our legal system, because I truly had no idea how big, bad and difficult those problems are. There is no silver bullet – modernising our legal system so it can deliver justice and play its role in improving society is going to be a long arduous task. It isn’t solved by one federal election.
Yes, we are finally making long-awaited headway on climate change, but my biggest disappointment has been a lack of consensus on deforestation.
In a similar vein, I am increasingly anxious about the way we are managing the ‘Voice’ referendum, which promises overdue recognition and engagement of First Nations Australians. I can guarantee you I will be voting ‘Yes’ at the referendum. So my criticism of the process is motivated by wanting the Voice to succeed.
This is very different to the Dutton criticisms that aim to destroy, and not help.
I feel we are stumbling back to the awful mistakes of the 1999 Republic referendum, where an overwhelming majority of Australians wanted to cut the apron strings tethering modern us to the British royal family.
For readers who are too young to remember, the debacle of that referendum saw the most ardent republicans split from moderate republicans, and aligned themselves with monarchists to advocate a ‘No’ vote.
They did not like the ‘minimalist model’ of parliament appointing our head of state – so they blocked any change and checkmated their own cause.
There are plenty of lessons – but the key one I want to point out is that the debacle concerning a proposed republic unfolded in 1999 – some 23 years ago. It drank up all our energy for even discussing a republic, and killed the issue for more than two decades. With no sign it will be revived. Do we really want to inflict this outcome on Aboriginal Australia?
Putting it bluntly, I don’t give a frostbitten fig about how the royal family felt about our 1999 Republic debate.
By contrast, the looming ‘Voice’ referendum has disastrous impacts if it is lost. And it will lose if it proceeds in a way that bitterly divides Australians – for all the wrong reasons – and sees vast numbers of voters who do want reconciliation voting ‘No’.
We have already seen this happen when ardent republicans destroyed the 1999 referendum. It feels we are on the exact same track for the 2023 ‘Voice’ referendum.
It would be horrific to repeat that 1999 mistake. A ‘No’ vote that sets back reconciliation 24 years (as happened with the Republic), is the worst imaginable outcome. It must be avoided, even at the cost of delaying or cancelling the referendum.
The Albanese government does have the option of ‘just getting on with it’. The Voice does not require the symbolism of constitutional change. This referendum is being conducted to establish a voter mandate for the Voice.
Such a mandate would be powerful, but if it backfires, and there is no mandate at all, the effect will be to sink the Voice altogether.
The 1999 Republic referendum did require a change to the Constitution – we had to roll the dice with a referendum that was poorly designed and got hijacked and defeated.
There is no such imperative for the Voice. I would love a referendum to pass, and feel increasingly angered by the politics, especially the National Party’s blinkered opposition. I do not want bloody-minded politics to get away with sinking the Voice. But with an increasingly diverse number of First Nations leaders questioning the Voice, I fear it its enemies now have powerful means to derail and destroy the conversation.
Rather than lose, let’s hit pause. We have got to get this right for the sake of the very people we are trying to help. And I am increasingly of the view that blundering forward with a national vote that carries a high risk of failure is the wrong thing to do. It is a grave mistake to unnecessarily risk the very soul of our country, and the wellbeing of dispossessed and decimated communities.
The Albanese government still has a small window to recover this issue and get the Voice referendum back on track. We need to be on a pathway to a near consensus vote – a verdict I believe Australians are capable of delivering. Linda Burney (who I admire greatly) and her team can succeed. But if not, then it is better to stage a tactical retreat than kill this important cause by staging a failed attempt. We need a positive outcome. Anything less will cause more harm than good.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
