DEAR News Of The Area,

I’M sure by now you’ve all had this Referendum ‘up to pussy’s bow’ but some of us oldies still have concerns about the Voice, including this one:

How will the Voice succeed in ‘closing the gap’ in disadvantaged Indigenous communities and eliminating domestic violence towards women and children, when many of the existing organisations and billions of dollars have not achieved this?

Will the Voice replace these organisations, or will it become just another costly, Canberra-based bureaucracy?

There doesn’t seem to be any clarity about this.

If nothing else, this referendum has shone a light on the unresolved plight of disadvantaged Indigenous communities and the urgent need for financial accountability.

Warren Mundine, one of the leaders of the No Campaign, has proposed a four-point plan to tackle this very issue (Warren Mundine ‘Four ways to do better than one Statement’ The Daily Telegraph 06/10/2023).

It focuses on:
1. Accountability: Where is the money going? What is it being used for? What, if any outcomes have been achieved?
2. Education: What is happening with kids going to school?
3. Economic participation: including jobs, business creation and home ownership.
4. Social change: including safe communities and addressing violence, abusive and destructive behaviour.

This is a very practical plan and one that all Australians can get behind.

It doesn’t need to be enshrined in the Constitution.

It certainly isn’t ‘more of the same’ as the Yes mantra claims.

Unlike the Voice, it is a plan that can unite rather than divide our country!

Regards,
Ann THOMPSON,
Coffs Harbour.