Who are Chris Thompson, Maggie Ryder, Andy Qunta, Keith Reid and Ross Fraser? They are the creative team, along with John Farnham, who crafted one of Australia’s most recognisable musical intro’s and one of our most sing-along-able songs.
Little did they know in the mid 80s that their song, You’re The Voice, would play a major part in what is probably one of the most divisive issues in the nation’s history.
This is not the first time Farnham has spoken for the people of Australia. In his 1987 Australian of the Year speech he said: ‘We are right to instil national pride in our children, but please, let’s make our national driving compass humanity.’
In a press release over the weekend, Farnham said that the song changed his life. ‘I can only hope that now it might help, in some small way, to change the lives of our First Nations Peoples for the better.’
A potted history of unity
The clip looks at and ‘average’ Aussie family and their life around their TV, then their computer, through years of news reports and other broadcasts such as the 2000 Olympics, and a history of our country’s united moments including flashes of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s hand of sand with traditional land owner Vincent Lingiari, Cathy Freeman’s gold medal runs, the 1967 Referendum which also sought to change sections of the Constitution in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Eddie Mabo, the America’s Cup win, Nicky Winmar’s ‘this is my skin’ AFL moment, Kevin Rudd saying ‘Sorry’ and even a nod to John Howard and the the National Firearms Agreement.
The clip also references the most recent non-election vote – the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, the plebiscite to see what the nation’s people thought about same sex marriage. That vote returned 7,817,247 (61.6 per cent) ‘Yes’ responses and 4,873,987 (38.4 per cent) ‘No’ responses.
With 40 days until the referendum one would imagine that the ‘No’ camp would need to pull a very large rabbit out of the advertising hat to top this one.
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. 
