New Catallaxy

Sensible Centre on The Voice

This is another take on the situation, some of it I find agreeable and some I don’t. What about you?

END THE CIVIL WAR

1. Set an end date for the culture wars on race and culture;
2. Complete land claims, truth-telling exercises, and place name changes by this date;
3. End the divisive practice of ‘Welcome to / Acknowledgement of Country’;
4. Replace the British Crown with an Australian Head of State;
5. Replace the 3 current Australian flags in official use with a new unifying national flag;
6. Reject the proposal for a permanent divisive ‘Voice to Parliament’;
7. End race-based programs and entitlements in government;
8. Introduce a Reconciliation Day public holiday on 27 January 2026 to mark the historic settlement of these issues and replace Australia Day on 26 January as our official national day.

Rafe Champion

32 responses to “Sensible Centre on The Voice”

  1. Kingsley Avatar
    Kingsley

    I think a more intelligent response would be to have some sort of royal commission into why the, I believe $30B odd we spend on Aboriginal Affairs annually has achieved such abysmal results. Ideally that throws up some genuine solutions to that chronic waste but even if it doesn’t it will get across just how much we are already and have been spending for a long time now. If someone wants to argue for reparations, sorry mate we’ve already paid, it many times over.
    Likewise it will get across that a lot ( but not all) of that waste is actually down to some very well paid Aboriginal bureaucrats.
    We should be trying to really focus on how we are actually going to fix Aboriginal disadvantage

    17
  2. RogerW Avatar
    RogerW

    1, 3, 6 and 7 sound great!
    But don’t fool yourself a logical and sensible compromise would work. The Left want conflict and division. They will always come up with other demands.

    13
  3. Rockdoctor Avatar
    Rockdoctor

    No. We’ve given more than enough ground already and look where it has got us.

    Sorry no more.

    19
  4. Damon Avatar
    Damon

    1. Set an end date for the culture wars on race and culture;
    Agreed by whom or how many? End of story.
    2. Complete land claims, truth-telling exercises, and place name changes by this date;
    See above.
    3. End the divisive practice of ‘Welcome to / Acknowledgement of Country’;
    This pompous virtue signalling really should stop.
    4. Replace the British Crown with an Australian Head of State;
    The Governor General is Head of State,
    5. Replace the 3 current Australian flags in official use with a new unifying national flag;
    What utter garbage. People have fought and died under that flag. No-one has done anything (apart from protest) under any alternative.
    6. Reject the proposal for a permanent divisive ‘Voice to Parliament’;
    Well, yes, but it should never have been brought up for consideration.
    7. End race-based programs and entitlements in government;
    Obvious.
    8. Introduce a Reconciliation Day public holiday on 27 January 2026 to mark the historic settlement of these issues and replace Australia Day on 26 January as our official national day.
    If we solve all of the above issues, we should have no problem celebrating Australia Day on the original date.

    11
  5. Barry Avatar
    Barry

    Sensible centre is an alias for Extreme Left.

    The Centre position would be to make no changes.

    The “right” position would be to dismantle the gratuitous waste of public funds constituted by the meant Federal, State and Local race based instrumentalities.

    We could be one, not many.

    13
  6. Perfidious Albino Avatar
    Perfidious Albino

    I could probably reluctantly accept 2 – 8, but the reality is the left will never give up on 1, as is rubbed in our faces every time we give up the next slice.

    2
  7. ColinJ Avatar
    ColinJ

    The “British Crown” has no relationship in any way with Australia which has its own separate realm, The King of Australia. We have no authority over the British Crown. We should remember we tried to remove the Australian Crown and the proposal to do so was the very best that the advocates could come up with (with considerable resources devoted to the job by the government) and it was defeated in every state. Nothing has changed since then. Leave this one out as it’s a loser.

    The “Voice” will go the same way. The suburbs will have their say after the elites have had theirs.

    There should be no programs nor laws for any race. Government funded programs should be based only on need, not race.

    Tough love is called for. Go to school. Get a job. Obey the law. Be responsible. That is the mantra for all.

    13
  8. rickw Avatar
    rickw

    We need truth telling alright:

    “You were rescued from borderline starvation and state of endless total tribal war, and all that this entails. Whilst you seem intent on returning to all these things, we would much prefer that you remained with us, and our bright and shared common future as Australians.”

    11
  9. Shy Ted Avatar
    Shy Ted

    Sensible centre? Gullible fools.

    4
  10. Katzenjammer Avatar
    Katzenjammer

    If’n ya don’t drop your interminable petty grudges we might actually take you up on the genocide you keep hinting at.

  11. Katzenjammer Avatar
    Katzenjammer

    If’n ya don’t drop your interminable petty grudges we might actually take you up on the genocide you keep hinting at. If we reach that point let’s see who chooses that remote drop of their ancestry as their primary identity.

    2
  12. Wally Dalí Avatar
    Wally Dalí

    You lost me around #4…
    Taking the spirit of your subsequent post to “fight the culture wars”… no.
    Australia is everything. There is no other culture, there is no other people, there is no cryptic history, there is no resistance.
    The idea that we should capitulate to the demands of dimwits who make up paper-thin memes of “soveriegnty” and “first nations” and “country” and “invasion” and “80 000 years of unchanging gentle stewardship of nature” and “nation’s birth certificate” and “voice” is pathetic. These people do not want co-operation or reconciliation. They want dictatorship, denouncement, attainder, forfeiture, protection, institutionalization, legislation, command and control. They want power without accountability. They will put a boot on our neck- forever.
    No.
    We are a state of European Christians, and the most devestatingly final consequence of settlement of the great southern land was the wholesale desertion of Aboriginal ways of life to join the welcoming, tolerant, rights and responsibilities, Western Christian life of the nation of Australia.
    Australia was founded by western men, Australia Day was founded by western men. The only people who get all identitarianly teary about the Australian Head Of State being a European man are pronouns-in-bio shallow sooks.
    Do you think changing the date of Australia Day to another Arabic number in a Roman month in the Gregorian Calendar will satiate the power-hungry monomaniacs who are demanding it? Nope.
    You think changing the flag will satiate the open-borders globalists who are telling you that the Union Jack is a symbol of genocide? Do you think that a new soft-focus spotty pastel flag will somehow speak to hearts and it will be hppily carried to the olympics but never carried to war?
    Australia ain’t perfect, but it is what it is. Don’t like the flag? Then don’t fly it, yourself, or get a bumper sticker grassroots campaign. But don’t try to tell me I’m being dangerously racist nationalist jingoistic if I hold up the good old one.
    Don’t like the day? Then hold your own party some other time if you’ve got any vim about you, I’m sure your righteous passion will make it a blinder. But don’t try to get in the way of my show.
    Don’t like the civic rule? Then, dig in for a long game of getting into parliament and asking the GG to entertain some referendums… ie, do some bloody work and turn some heads, anything but the “I want a pony, and I want it NOW” demands of Lydia Thorpe or Danny Lim. Or stage a coup d’état. Pissy brit colonies like Fiji and Burma have done it, what’s a matter you?
    Warriors of the Resistance, my arse. Trying to change the country via viral TikTok. Why would anyone want to appease these children, why would anyone think that appeasement would mean a ceasefire, instead of the obvious escalation in which indulging a spoilt child just leads to entrenching toddler tantrum tyranny?
    Unfortunately the Cathedral is all-in for it, and if the country’s capitulation to Social Credit Score medico-fascism is anything to go by, my once grown-up country might just roll over and get buggered, forever.

    13
  13. Oh come on Avatar
    Oh come on

    They’ll agree and then demand more.

    5
  14. m0nty Avatar
    m0nty

    Sensible Centre sounds like a front for Liberals who want to get invited to cool cocktail parties.

    2
  15. Boambee John Avatar
    Boambee John

    m0ntysays:
    February 2, 2023 at 9:58 am
    Sensible Centre sounds like a front for Liberals who want to get invited to cool cocktail parties.

    Nah, it’s just standard leftard Astro-turf, and even one as stupid as you are knows it.

  16. Christine Avatar
    Christine

    They will never be satisfied.

    Australia must “honour” the ten-thousand year hunter/gatherer existence?

    Whose head could replace the English monarch’s on the $5 dollar note?
    Eddie’s?
    Linda’s? Marcia’s?
    Adam’s??

    Enough

    2
  17. Bar Beach Swimmer Avatar
    Bar Beach Swimmer

    Wally Dalí says:
    February 2, 2023 at 12:35 am

    That demands a thread of its own.
    Send it to DB, WD.

    2
  18. amortiser Avatar
    amortiser

    Just put a referendum to abolish s51(xxvi). Racist legislative provisions have no place in a free society.

    2
  19. Louis Litt Avatar
    Louis Litt

    Nope – all of ‘‘em off the table, especially 4 & 8.
    Stop agreeing the student union.

  20. bespoke Avatar
    bespoke

    Shy Tedsays:
    February 1, 2023 at 8:19 pm
    Sensible centre? Gullible fools.

    indubitably.

    Eny chance of compromise is long gone.

    1
  21. Miksa Avatar
    Miksa

    I am a staunch opponent of the Voice, so called ‘climate change’ policies, the republic and the whole suite of left-wing rubbish that we deplore so much on this blog, but I could accept a new flag with the aboriginal flag occupying the place of the present Union Jack, if it would placate that lobby, rather than the damned Voice. I fully acknowledge the enormous value of the British heritage in our law and government, but that is history, and it’s a long time since we were a set of colonies of the Crown. The flag is our symbol to the world and it is just confusing for others to see the flag of another country in our own.

    1
  22. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha Avatar
    Zulu Kilo Two Alpha

    Whose head could replace the English monarch’s on the $5 dollar note?

    Bruce Pascoe?

  23. Boambee John Avatar
    Boambee John

    Miksa

    I could accept a new flag with the aboriginal flag occupying the place of the present Union Jack, if it would placate that lobby, rather than the damned Voice

    That’s a bloody big “if”, there is no hope of placating the buggers.

    1
  24. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha Avatar
    Zulu Kilo Two Alpha

    That’s a bloody big “if”, there is no hope of placating the buggers.

    I’m not in favor of changing the flag, for precisely that reason.

  25. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha Avatar
    Zulu Kilo Two Alpha

    Voice ‘above politics’: Perrottet
    Joanna Panagopoulos
    JOANNA PANAGOPOULOS

    NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said he doesn’t see the voice to parliament as a political issue.

    “I don’t see it as a political issue. This is an issue that we agree with, in principle, and it should be above politics. It should be a moment that unites the country and doesn’t divide the country. That has been my position from the outset,” he said at a joint press conference following the national cabinet meeting.

    It comes after Anthony Albanese and state and territory ministers used a National Cabinet meeting to sign a “statement of intent” to support a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament for Indigenous Australians.

  26. Bar Beach Swimmer Avatar
    Bar Beach Swimmer

    Miksa:
    The flag is our symbol to the world and it is just confusing for others to see the flag of another country in our own.

    Whenever that argument comes up, I wonder if the person can identify other flags and not be confused by some very similar ones. Many people would not be able to confirm which flag was the flag of Germany and which one the flag of Belgium; or know which flag was France’s and which one The Netherlands?

    In fact, most people could not identify more than a dozen and I think that would be stretching the hope. As to explaining most national flag’s particular configuration, that’s even more complicated.

    National Flags are not a country’s symbol to the world – the rest of the world has no input into an individual nation’s flag – rather, it is the country’s symbol about itself. It stands to say something about itself.

    Our Flag

    Our Flag wears the stars that blaze at night,
    In our Southern skies of blue,
    And a little old flag in the corner,
    That’s part of our heritage too.
    It’s for the English, the Scots and the Irish,
    Who were sent to the ends of the earth,
    The rogues and schemers, the doers and dreamers,
    Who gave modern Australia its birth.
    And you, who are shouting to change it,
    You don’t seem to understand,
    It’s the flag of our laws and our language,
    Not the flag of a faraway land.
    Though there are plenty of people who’ll tell you,
    How when Europe was plunged into night,
    That little old flag in the corner,
    Was their symbol of freedom and light.
    It doesn’t mean we owe allegiance,
    To a forgotten imperial dream,
    We’ve the stars to show where we’re going,
    And the old flag to show where we’ve been.
    It’s only an old piece of bunting,
    It’s only an old piece of rag,
    But there are thousands who’ve died for its honour,
    And shed of their blood for OUR FLAG.

    *Robin Northover (1986)

    *(I did not know the name of the author until I just searched for the poem – I couldn’t remember one of the lines. I’ve always understood that the author was anonymous. Just shows we can learn something every day.)

    1
  27. WolfmanOz Avatar
    WolfmanOz

    Wally Dalí says:
    February 2, 2023 at 12:35 am

    Simply brilliant !

  28. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha Avatar
    Zulu Kilo Two Alpha

    WA News
    Indigenous Voice to Parliament: Mark McGowan’s plan for WA revealed
    Josh Zimmerman
    The West Australian
    Fri, 3 February 2023 11:13AM

    Establishing a Voice to WA Parliament appears set to hinge on the outcome of this year’s national referendum, with Mark McGowan confirming a yes vote would spark discussions with the Commonwealth about how the advisory bodies would align.

    The Premier has already committed himself to campaigning in favour of changing the constitution to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

    Mr McGowan said ensuring a successful referendum – slated for the second half of 2023 – remained his priority and could act as a catalyst for the simultaneous creation of a Voice to the State’s Parliament.

    “If the referendum is successful we would work with the Federal Government on matters involving local and regional alignment with a National Voice,” the Premier said.

    “This referendum is so important. It’s important we don’t confuse things. The aim is to ensure this referendum is successful first.”

    His comments come after two senior Labor ministers – Amber-Jade Sanderson and Stephen Dawson – both publicly backed a WA Voice to Parliament on Wednesday.

    Both the ACT and Victoria already have Indigenous advisory bodies to their Parliaments while South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has committed to having a Voice up and running in his state by the end of the year.

    Mr McGowan said the WA constitution had already been amended 9 years ago “to recognise WA’s Aboriginal people as the first people of WA and the traditional custodians of this land.”

    That came as a result of a private members Bill from Labor MP Josie Farrer – then in Opposition – which was ultimately passed by the Barnett Government.
    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has laid out the mammoth task facing his government before a referendum on the Voice can even be held, including two separate Bills he hopes to pass through Parliament by the end of June.

    The Premier said his government had subsequently “reinvigorated the Aboriginal Advisory Council in 2019” – a statutory body made up of Aboriginal leaders from across WA – and that it was already supporting consultation and regional engagement.

    The McGowan Government also points to the planned Aboriginal Culture Centre and the Wadjemup Project – which focuses on Rottnest Island’s history as a penal facility – as examples of “truth-telling processes” already underway in the State.

    On Wednesday, Ms Sanderson, the Health Minster, said she was “certainly” in favour of a Voice to WA Parliament but that it was a “matter for Cabinet”.

    Mr Dawson echoed Mr McGowan’s view that a establishing a national Voice was the first step, which would dictate the structure and composition of the WA body – something he “absolutely” backed.

    “Certainly for my constituency in the North West, I’ve heard loudly and clearly from Aboriginal leaders that they want a Voice,” the Emergency Services Minister said.

    “As to what kind of structures, what kind of representative structures, we should have in place going forward, I think as a priority we do need to have a Voice nationally.”

    Mr McGowan is in Canberra on Friday for face-to-face meeting of National Cabinet, which is expected to include a formal commitment from all State and Territory leaders to support the national Voice.

  29. Miksa Avatar
    Miksa

    A few people above have disagreed with my suggestion about the flag. Fair enough – I know a lot feel strongly about it. I agree it probably would not be enough for the fanatics on the other side – what is? – but it would be quite a significant offering and might be worth a try, if only to refute the inevitable ‘raaacist’ screeching. And whatever the true purpose of a flag might be, the fact is that lots of people from the rest of the world take flags at face value and are confused when they recognise the British flag appearing on Australia’s.

  30. Bar Beach Swimmer Avatar
    Bar Beach Swimmer

    And whatever the true purpose of a flag might be, the fact is that lots of people from the rest of the world take flags at face value and are confused when they recognise the British flag appearing on Australia’s.

    Might make them do a bit of research to learn something about this country, the flag, and us.

  31. Boambee John Avatar
    Boambee John

    Miksa

    the fact is that lots of people from the rest of the world take flags at face value and are confused when they recognise the British flag appearing on Australia’s.

    Miksa

    I quickly checked the flags of Hawaii (a state of the US) an Fiji (an independent Pacific Republic).

    Both include the Union Jack in the upper left quarter. There must be many confused people around the world.

  32. Boambee John Avatar
    Boambee John

    And even New Zealand under Ardern retained the Union Jack in its flag.

    1

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