Opinion: A broken Voice is no option: Australia’s moment to unite or fail | Peter Hartcher
It should be a unifying act of nation-building. It risks being a divisive failure. With minimal work to prepare public opinion, Anthony Albanese is launching his campaign on Saturday to install an Indigenous Voice to parliament.
Any proposal to change the Constitution must be processed successfully through the political system if it is to have any chance. We know that’s hard. Of the 44 referendums held since Federation to change the Constitution, a mere eight have succeeded. Contrary to the vilification of Dutton as Voldemort, the Liberal leader has the capacity to be bipartisan and unifying in the national interest. It was a bad look for him to boycott Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generation in 2008. It was a mistake, and he was big enough to admit it this year: “I made a mistake in relation to the apology. At the time, I believed that the apology should be given when the problems were resolved and the problems are not resolved.
There are three key details. First is its standing in the Constitution. The prime minister proposes, as quoted above, that the Constitution be amended to say the Voice “may make representations”. It would be a source of advice and accountability. “Not a third chamber, not a rolling veto, not a blank cheque,” Albanese points out. It would not be a threat to the powers of the parliament or the government but an advisory adjunct.
The second fallacy is that recognition is meaningless. Test the truth of this the next time someone ignores you or snubs you. Recognition is a central need of the human spirit. The ancient Greeks had a word for it. Thymos – the part of the human soul that craves recognition. With it, we are empowered and ennobled. Without recognition, we are less than fully human.
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