This is the story of the column I almost wrote, but which was overtaken by events. It all started a few weeks ago with a well-placed leak that the Albanese government was moving on from the disastrous result of its failed referendum on the racist Voice. The Voice was, of course, only Plan A of its triple-headed monster of Voice, Makarrata and Treaty. The entire plan was to elevate one race above all others, denigrate European settlement, vastly expand government spending on bureaucracy, consultants and conferences and give us a dose of enforced wallowing in grief and guilt about being born or having migrated here.

The leak, then, was that the government was going to move on to Plan B: the Makarrata, otherwise known as truth-telling. That should have given us due warning by itself. When governments and their lackies – in the Aboriginal industry and anywhere else  – start talking about truth-telling, we know that what they actually mean is lying. As with the eponymous Department of Truth immortalised in George Orwell’s 1984, the plan was to set up another bureaucracy whose only role was to rewrite history, paint a story of false oppression and deny the immense value of settlement that has been given to Australia’s Aboriginals since its foundation.

My response to this proposed twaddle, in the column I was going to write, was to issue a challenge to oppose the Makarrata: to get ready to fight against this unwarranted expansion of the powers of the federal government; get ready to argue against the coming waste of vast sums of money and, above all; to reignite the argument that had been so successful in the anti-Voice campaign, that we simply do not want our public policy based on race, we do not want more power being given to unelected officials and we do not want any more denigration of non-Aboriginal Australians.

But, lo and behold, the leak has miraculously faded away and it is now clear that Albanese has got cold feet about setting up a Makarrata as the next step on from the Voice. How ironic it is that his foray into truth-telling should begin with a lie! His cringe-making speech to the Garma festival tells us that after all the hype, after all the promises to implement the whole Uluru Statement word for word, as he promised on the very night of his election, we are not going to have one Makarrata, or at least not yet, and that what we will have instead is a series of little ones, mini-Makarratas, where there will be lots of coming together, broad concepts and lots of dialogue. Or, as one of his more trenchant Aboriginal critics put it, a ‘vague vibe (and) casual conversations’. The vibe, apparently, is Albanese’s next big thing.

This new proposal is a threat that has to be opposed and defeated. In fact, it is a far more substantial threat than the Voice, as it will be set up simply by government fiat and will not be subject to approval by the people at a referendum, which saved us from the Voice. Moreover, at least with the Makarrata, there was going to be a body that you could identify and where the wild allegations and re-writing of history that would inevitably be made would be open to cross-examination and competing evidence. But the mini-Makarattas will not be subject to any such restraints. They will essentially be private meetings where federal officials will agree to newly funded programs, new powers for so-called representatives of the Aboriginal people and more symbols and ceremonies, if there could possibly be any more than we already have, and where we will continually be reminded that we live under a justly deserved cloud of guilt and shame.

And when you get down to the details that Albanese has condescended to give us, it is even more ludicrous. And closer to being a giant fraud. He says, first, that corporate Australia will have to step up and link arms with the Aboriginal movement. We all know what that means: compulsory and tokenistic appointments of Aboriginal directors and shareholders who will force companies into making decisions that favour only one race.

Next, Aboriginal enhancement will magically be advanced, he claims, by the government’s policies on climate change and the environment, policies that are in reality designed to stop industrial progress and development. First up, you can kiss good-bye to any hope of ever getting Woodside’s Browse gas field up and running.

Thirdly, we are told, the new mini-Makarratas will have to work in with the government’s new Nirvana of ‘Made in Australia’; surely every Australian would want to buy Australian, but what on earth will be the Aboriginal contribution to quantum computers, solar panels and AI and why, like everything that Albanese touches, does it have to be defined by race?

What, then, would be a better policy on Aboriginal affairs than Albanese’s racism? Here are a few policies that are not only based on sound principle, but (Liberal party, take notice!) would be very popular with the electorate:

– a National Declaration that we are one nation, not a collection of rival camps and tribes;

– the sole objective of Aboriginal policy will be better outcomes and results;

– an end to race-based policies and funding;

– no treaties between the nation and its own citizens;

– no more empty gestures like comedic public welcome to country and smoking ceremonies;

– we will celebrate Australia Day on 26 January;

– one Australian national flag, the one we already have;

– the ABC will use the real and official names of cities and regions, not Dreamtime fantasies, as the source of news;

– and the one guiding principle that will influence all government decisions from now on will be to encourage the strength of individual Australians of whatever race or colour, and provide them with real incentives to improve their standard of living. And their happiness.