Initially, I would like to acknowledge the contributions, however unwitting, to the ‘No’ campaign of Pearson, Burney, Davis, and Langton.

I am a septuagenarian and my ancestors were Caucasian of Northern European Origin even though I am at least 3rd generation indigenous born, meaning that my children are 4th generation indigenous and my grandchildren 5th generation indigenous Australians.

I remember 1963 and how moved and supportive I was (and still am) of Martin Luther King Junior’s I Have a Dream speech which included the classic line: ‘…that one day my children will be judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.’

Apart from the ‘Yes’ campaign’s assertion that I must be either racist and/or stupid, the reasons I intend to vote ‘No’ at the Voice referendum on October 14 are as follows.

If passed, the Voice to Parliament will create a race-based institution that will grant some people more power than other Australian citizens.

If the new body is not consulted before the Parliament or Executive Government pass laws or make decisions, those laws and decisions could be overruled by the High Court.

A ‘Voice’ institution could be created by Parliament right now, without the detrimental problems referred to in above.

If the referendum question was altered, as it easily could be, to purely acknowledge in the preamble of the Constitution that the Aboriginal people were the first inhabitants of the continent for tens of thousands of years it would, I believe, have overwhelming support and easily pass.

There are already 11 Aboriginal members of Parliament. As has been pointed out elsewhere that means in relation to their percentage of the population they are over-represented in Parliament. Memo to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the ‘Yes’ vibe crowd, to paraphrase Johnny Farnham: ‘They’re the Voice, try to understand it, we’re all Australian no matter where our forbears come from.’

In addition to their parliamentary representatives, Close the Gap bodies, and the National Indigenous Australians Agency, government websites reveal that there are 3,278 Aboriginal corporations, 243 Native Title bodies, 48 Land Councils, 35 Regional Councils, 145 health organisations, and 12 culturally important Indigenous days.

Government records also reveal that Australian government expenditure per person is twice as much for Aboriginal Australians as it is for other Australians.

There does not appear to be unanimous support for the Voice from all Aboriginal groups. The elite Aboriginal spokespersons are all in favour of the ‘Yes’ campaign, but others like Anthony Dillon from Victoria, Warren Mundine from NSW, and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price all intend to vote ‘No’. I have also recently seen interviewed on Sky News Australia elders from Uluru, Western Australia, and South Australia who all say that they will vote ‘No’, as will their peoples.

It could open a Pandora’s box and be the next step to what a number of the Aboriginal elite have said are their ultimate goals; a treaty, sovereignty, and reparations.

Despite the recent protestations of the Prime Minister that the Uluru Statement from the Heart is just a one-page good vibe recognition, it has become quite apparent, from the media revelations about past statements from the drafters, that the accompanying pages to the one-page summary, whether those pages be 15, 16 or 25, that the Voice is the first step towards a Treaty, a Makaratta truth-telling commission and then reparations as a percentage of GDP being paid to Aboriginal Australians by other Australians.

Albo hasn’t read the attachments, why would he?

With Treaty and reparations, the Pandora’s Box really explodes. Who is eligible to receive the reparations and who must pay them? Do we have self-identification as the criteria or will there need to be mandatory DNA tests to determine Aboriginality?

The calculations of reparations becomes even more difficult when we factor in the majority of Aboriginal people being of mixed racial descent.

It was somewhat ironic that the Prime Minister described the ‘No’ campaign to be fearmongers and Chicken Littles and that they should be more respectful. In early April in the Weekend Australian Marcia Langton warned, ‘Vote ‘No’ and you won’t get a welcome to country again.’ Surely, joked many, that is an offer too good to refuse?

Malcolm Turnbull, Julie Bishop, and Matt Kean, those staunch conservative members of the Liberal Party, are hopping on the ‘Yes’ bandwagon. I am sure their virtue signalling has convinced a lot of undecided voters to vote ‘Yes’, especially seeing the photographs in the press the day after the Prime Minister’s announcement in Adelaide confirming the Referendum date as October 14. We had Ms Bishop marching down the main street of Perth, proudly wearing a ‘Yes’ T-Shirt beaming a grin from ear to ear.

Finally, the clincher for me was the brilliant presentation by Jacinta Nampijinpa Price at the National Press Club on September 14 when a journalist from The Guardian asked, ‘Do you believe colonisation continues to have an impact on some Indigenous Australians?’

Jacinta replied, ‘No I don’t think so… To be honest with you, a positive impact, absolutely. I mean, now we have running water, and readily available food. Everything that my grandfather had when he was growing up, when he first met white fellas in his adolescence, we now have. Otherwise he would have had to live off the land… Aboriginal Australians, many of us, have the same opportunities as all other Australians and probably one of the greatest systems in the world, in terms of democratic structure, in comparison to other countries. It is why migrants flock to Australia, to call Australia home, because the opportunity exists for all Australians. But if we keep telling Aboriginal people they are victims, we are effectively removing their agency and giving them the expectation that someone else is responsible for their lives. That is the worst possible thing you can do to any human being, to tell them that they are a victim without agency. And that is what I refuse to do.’

Not surprisingly, the room full of Woke left-wing journalists were bowled over. The Moderator channelled the famous line from the Life of Brian ‘…all right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the freshwater system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?’ when he tried to cross-examine Ms Price with the following question:

‘I have talked to Indigenous people and I am sure others have too who talk about generations of trauma among Indigenous Australians as a result of colonisation, whether that means colonisation continues now is probably a separate question. Would you accept now that there have been generations of that trauma as a result of that history?’

Jacinta hit that juicy waist-high full toss for six with the following reply, ‘Well I guess that would mean that those of us whose ancestors were dispossessed of their own country and brought here in chains as convicts were also suffering from intergenerational trauma, so I should be doubly suffering from intergenerational trauma.’

Checkmate.

It was interesting to observe that Linda Burney’s appearance, not long before Jacinta’s, was held in the main auditorium. Jacinta’s was held in a small and cramped annex because of renovations being carried out in the main auditorium.

About two weeks later, Warren Mundine appeared at the National Press Club, also in the cramped annex. Mundine pointed out that over 50 per cent of Australia is already under Native Title and that if pending claims were successful then over 70 per cent would be under Native Title.

My dream is that my grandchildren will grow up in a nation that all citizens rights, including voting rights, are determined not by the colour of their skin but by their Australian citizenship. So for all of the above reasons that is why I will be voting ‘No’ on October 14.