DEAR News Of The Area,

IT is really sad to see letters like that from Wayne Duesbury published on 12 May.

There is just so much ignorance on display.

The Voice came from Aboriginal people through hundreds of meetings of ordinary people leading up to the Uluru statement several years ago.

It was not the product of politicians.

The amount of time politicians spent on fly-in-fly-out visits to Alice Springs is irrelevant.

There is no risk to the sovereignty of the parliament in the proposed amendment.

The rights and privileges of the Voice will be set by parliament.

The Voice will be able to advocate for a point of view, but not enforce it.

There will be two main privileges accruing to members of the Voice: a public service salary and a rise in public status that will probably mean that the media will pay attention when they speak.

As to details, the Voice proposal was the subject of a review commissioned by the previous Liberal government.

The authors of the review, Langton and De Palma, have already published their work on a government website that can be found with a few clicks of a mouse on a computer.

If you don’t have one, go to the library and use one of theirs.

That is why Lessor resigned from the ministry: Littleproud and Dutton ignored the work done at his request and continue to do so.

There is ample detail available if one would just take the time to look at it.

And yes, it is racist.

As a racist society, using biological warfare (measles, chickenpox, smallpox, influenza, whooping cough etc plus alcohol); habitat destruction (e.g. sheep eating the tops of root crops and killing them in the Yarra valley); direct massacres (hundreds of them over 150 years killing thousands) and destruction of families by kidnappings, our Anglo ancestors stole nearly everything from the ancestors of present day Aboriginals.

A little racism in reverse might be a good thing.

And since the Voice is designed by Parliament, a future government will be able to trim it back to silence if they can get the numbers in the Senate and still think that is a good idea.

There can be no long-term damage from the Voice because it will be controlled by the rules set by parliament.

Price and Mundine are barking up the wrong tree about a treaty: as in the United States and New Zealand, treaty provisions that conflict with vested interests will just be ignored.

If you don’t know about that, read ‘Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee’.

Read it and weep.

When you get over it, read ‘Dark Emu’ and see if you don’t weep a little more.

If we have a Voice, at the very least, the powers-that-be will have to listen.

And so will we.

Regards,
Alan STANLEY,
Upper Corindi.