The Australian people will soon be asked to vote in a referendum to constitutionally recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through a First Nations Voice. Unfortunately, the political debate on this question has become mired in arguments over “detail” that are either ignorant or deceitful about the nature of the proposal, and the work that has been done on it.
Last week, a fractured Nationals Party announced it would not support the referendum because they were not convinced a Voice would “Close The Gap”. They also argued Labor had failed to provide sufficient “detail”.
The former Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt accused the party of “laziness” for failing to read the detail in a 280-page report delivered to government in July 2021, a proposal Wyatt took to Cabinet twice before the last election.
