Why vote “yes” to the Voice?

John Howard has always been an ahistorical tosspot:

Former Prime Minsiter John Howard has described British colonisation as “the luckiest thing that happened” to Australia.

Not lucky for everyone.

The eloquent Maeve MacGregor at Wokey describes what she calls the “liberal doom loop“:

…along with recognition of First Peoples as the “bearers of the first history of our continent”, is the strongest argument for a Voice. We’re technically all equal, yes, but some of us — most Australians — far more so than First Nations as a group. International law recognises that it’s this history of disadvantage, and the distinctive collective identity of Indigenous peoples, which justifies steps which ensure their views find reflection in mainstream laws that directly impinge upon them.

Yet instead of recognising this simple truth, the campaign has descended into a struggle for Australia’s identity, and one that pitches the country at a crossroads: one path promises the ugly nationalism and shattered trust fashioned by Dutton’s lies; the other embraces the generous, patriotic act of reconciliation the Voice extends to all Australians.

The path you prefer depends in large part on how you see or choose to see the photo of chained inequality above. Something that is of closed significance, or something that to this day reverberates in our prisons and the outcomes for Indigenous peoples across the nation.

I will vote “yes” in the hope that it will help repair history and bridge this gap.

However, I disagree with the binary outcomes that MacGregor describes.

Like it or not, Voice is largely irrelevant to many Australians. This is more the case daily as mass immigration distances Australia from its history.

If Voice falls, it will be the latest chapter in a distressing history of First Nation’s failures. But, to paint it as existential for the national identity is a counter-productive exaggeration.

Voice is failing because it is mistimed and misused by an inept Albanese government seeking to distract from tumbling living standards that affect the majority.

This is the real doom loop. A ruthless Anthony Albanese has rendered every effort to talk up Voice another reason to be angry about what it is hiding.

Thankfully, there is still hope despite Albo:

A nationwide Roy Morgan poll of more than 2700 people, and commissioned by a third party, found 48.2 per cent of yes voters had definitely made up their mind in that they were very certain or certain that was how they would vote.

Just 27.9 per cent of No voters were as sure of their intention, while 23.9 per cent were considered “up for grabs”.

Respondents were asked whether they intended to vote Yes or No at the referendum and quizzed on their level of certainty.

The poll is a month old, but the Financial Review understands more recent research conducted by Yes23, as well as what is believed to be an extensive nationwide survey by federal Labor, involving about 15,000 thousand voters, have delivered the same findings.

Vote yes Voice. Vote no Albo.