A guilty conscience

should make us vote "yes" in the upcoming referendum. If we don't vote "yes" the rest of the world is going to think we are "racist". It will harm our international relations and cause trading links to fail. We will be pariahs. 

And so it goes on. The latest person to be hauled out to make these claims is a former foreign minister. She was standing next to our current foreign minister as she said it - and the two are on opposite sides of the political fence.

The reality of course is that it would take a lot of courage to stand there and say, "I am voting no". Anyone with any sort of public profile who says that gets castigated in the media. People don't like being criticised or considered "racist". That the proposal itself is "racist" is something they don't want to face or, if they do, otherwise believe it is justified.

I am trying to be fair but the media is biased towards the "yes" side. It really has no choice. Advertising would be pulled if they promoted the "no" side.The livelihoods of too many people are at stake here. The government knows this. It is a referendum they cannot afford to lose. If they do lose it then they will take none of the blame. It will be the fault of people who have simply questioned the entire process. We apparently cannot ask questions, even the length of the document on which all this is based cannot be questioned. 

I am wondering even about my ability to count now. I am wondering about my ability to read and understand. The Prime Minister is saying there is a "one page" document. He has not read  any more than that. "Why would I?" he asked. I read something which ran to at least eighteen pages. The first page appeared to be a sort of summary of the rest of it. The rest of it frightened me. It is full of demands that cannot possibly be met and yet the Prime Minister claims his government is committed to "implementing the Statement in full". 

My friend M... has gone north, north to the remote communities where the Voice to Parliament debate should be under discussion. He has found people who have not even heard of it, something they will need to vote on in around six or seven weeks from now. When he tried to say something to one group they just asked if it was going to fix their health problems, get their children to go to school and stay there - or even perhaps just give them clean drinking water? They couldn't even ask these questions in English. How can they read a ballot paper and make an informed decision? Will they even be able to write the word on the ballot paper? Or, will they just do as others tell them they "must" do?

It is time we stopped pretending that this is a democratic process that will lead to better outcomes. It won't.