Racism: Has the Pendulum Swung Too Far on the Other Side? — Australian Context
Australia is going to a referendum later this year on what is commonly referred to as The Voice. The referendum is held to amend the constitution to add a clause to the preamble. If passed separate bodies known as the Voice representing (only) the Indigenous people, also known as Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, will advice the government at all levels: local (municipal), state and national. Currently support for this constitutional reform stands at 58% (source). It has come down marginally from 64%.
One thing going for the NO campaign is that very few referendums pass. But they have to address the stigma of being racist. In general those who support the proposal are progressive on the social axis even if they are more right wing on the economic axis. Hence except for the Murdoch press, the rest of the press are by and large, For the proposal even if they feign impartiality, with ABC, the public broadcaster, leading the Yes campaign despite their claims to contrary. Radio National had an interview with Branaby Joyce, a senior federal politician, belonging to the Nationals party on April 18. The character assassination was terrible. “The witness is not on trial, Your Honour.”
Let’s recall a brief history of what led to this proposal. “It wasn’t until 1984 that Indigenous people were finally treated like other voters and required to enrol and vote at elections.” (source). In fact they were not counted in the national census. Following a constitutional amendment in 1967, the Indigeneous people were first counted in population census in 1971 (source). Again the land was considered “terra nullius.” In other words the land claimed by white settlers belonged to no one. In 1992 the High Court (the highest constitutional court) overthrew this assumption. So now we have a regime where the Indigenous people are consulted before unclaimed land is appropriated for other purposes.
Thus the Indigenous people have been handicapped at birth. They are over represented in almost every negative measure such as the proportion of people incarcerated, low life expectancy, school dropouts etc. The government is trying to redress the situation but nothing much is changing. There are many successful indigenous people but much like Afro-Americans they are found mostly in sports and arts including TV presenters. There is no equivalent of Neil de Grasse Tyson in Australia.
But despite all the programs for the Indigenous people their life is not improving. The claim is that throwing money at the issue does not fix the issue. Hence the Indigenous people must be at the forefront of all the decision making that affects them. Fair enough.
However having The Voice advise the parliament and the executive would mean that they can deal with any subject. Admittedly their advice can be rejected but their advice must be given due consideration. Imagine a situation where there is a flood in some place. The government decides to build a temporary accommodation in some high ground. For now, the government makes every effort not to encroach on land considered sacred. But the Voice will supersede that. They can force the government to wait until they carry out their own investigation and then give advice. For that matter they can object to defense procurement.
“…any Voice member that strayed into matters like the Reserve Bank and Defence procurement would be likely [to] face a short tenure.” (source) So now we have to depend on the thoughtfulness of the electors of the Voice to ensure that they don’t stray into such matters. Who are they kidding? George W Bush and John Howard got re-elected after taking their nations to a war in Iraq despite massive protests and the majority of the people being against it at that time. What prevents a bloody minded Indigenous politician stalling much need government action. Very few of Indigenous people will know what is going on and even fewer will care.
All that The Voice will do is to have yet another level of bureaucracy that a few elite members of the Indigenous community will enjoy. We must reduce references to race in the constitution and not use existing references as an excuse to have even more race based articles in the document.
