Book Review – ‘Everything You Need to Know About the Voice’

Everything You Need to Know About the Voice, by Megan Davis & George Williams, University of New South Wales Press

First up, have you heard about the 1967 referendum that finally gave aboriginal Australians the vote? The referendum in which 90% of voters enthusiastically said ‘yes’ to restoring equality between all citizens, black and white, and to right the wrongs of our White Australia past?  You heard about it?

Didn’t happen.

Turns out, yes, people voted in a referendum – but mainly to vote for or against increasing the number of politicians. The second question, which did get a 90% ‘yes’ vote, was for what people thought was a fairer deal for ‘Aborigines’. The only trouble is it wasn’t and didn’t. All it did was tweak a few lines of fine-print in the Constitution, counting indigenous Australians in any census, but leaving the door open for state, and now federal, governments to enact ongoing race-based and potentially discriminatory legislation.

But…

Back to the book.  It efficiently and briefly summarises our colonial history, and how and why we arrived at the current constitutional *ahem* shit-show. Turns out that, despite goodwill from individual politicians, and successive waves of First Nations’ and Torres Strait Islander pushes for representation, equity, reconciliation and Treaty in our post-colonial nation state, we’re still spinning our wheels. The 1999 referendum, (Howard’s sleight-of-hand question on having a republic, plus the choice of inserting a Preamble recognising First Nations peoples in our Constitution) failed, arguably because it lacked bipartisan support. The useful political football of ‘the Aboriginal problem’ bounced back and forth between the two major parties. The non-Indigenous Right hold to a non-inclusive ideological position that tends to blame and criminalise social ‘failure’ in First Nations peoples, the non-Indigenous Left fail to see their calls for ‘fairness’ aren’t helping when the entire system which they do well under is still based on structural unfairness. Neither really hear First Nations voices.

But…

Back to the book, and the timeline. Some of the states somewhat stepped up on things like recognition, and even Howard promised a referendum on it if re-elected. He lost, Rudd won, and we got an Apology to Australia’s Stolen Generations, with a promise of constitutional recognition in the future. The ongoing work of First Nations to push for change continued, and a groundswell of hard, positive effort met tepid political will. The Coalition won in 2014, overtly positive about constitutional recognition but quietly active in disempowering Aboriginal organisations, killing Indigenous trust. Desperate to make headway against non-Indigenous inertia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders continued the fight, with some political support from the Coalition, leading to the Uluru Statement of the Heart – a request for a Voice.

Thousands of voices went into the Uluru Statement, tens of thousands of hours of passion and discussion, grievance-airing and problem-solving, conflict and unity, frustration and positivity for our combined futures. It was rejected by the Coalition.

Labor won in 2022, and we now face a referendum on a Voice to Parliament, a mild request from our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for a protected, authentic Voice to Parliament that will lead to better advice and better outcomes for all Australians. Later, it’s hoped, will come Treaty and Truth-telling.

But, if we’re honest, the Labor government is ineptly handling this referendum by waving through misinformation, and the Coalition opposition is using a polarising campaign of manufactured doubt, backed by Newscorp, to dogwhistle its base.

If we lean Centre to Centre-Left, we want what’s ‘fair’ and what First Nations are largely asking for – for them to give advice when decisions are made that affect them. If we lean hard Left, we call bullshit on the whole deal as tokenistic. If we lean Right, our tribal leaders in the Liberal and National Parties, and the Murdoch media, beat the drums of fear, distrust and hate – and we’re told to ‘play it safe’ and vote ‘no’.

The only real question now is whether misinformation wins, and a majority of people vote with the fear-mongers. Either way, if you want to cut-through the rhetoric, Everything You Need to Know About The Voice will briskly give context to it all. You won’t be badgered, preached to or lectured – this is a matter-of-fact historical record for a referendum that, as we speak, doesn’t have bi-partisan support, and is likely to fail on that account, even though all the Uluru statement asks for is ‘to be heard’.

It seems even that might be asking too much.

Everything You Need to Know About the Voice, by Megan Davis & George Williams, University of New South Wales Press