The Civilisationists held a seminar on 20 Feb.2023 at the RSL hall Belmont, on why one should Vote NO to the proposal to include a special Aboriginal voice into the Australian constitution.
The keynote speaker was Warren Mundine AO president of the Voice NO case, followed by Emeritus Professor Gabriel Moens a leading Australian constitutional lawyer, and Luca Formaggio convenor of Generation Liberty at UWA.
Western Australian launch of the NO to the Voice Campaign
Seminar 20 February 2023.
Summaries based on notes made by M. Walter.
Keynote Speaker:
Mr Warren Mundine, an Australian statesman of aboriginal and settler origin.
The Aboriginal Voice is a massive challenge to democracy.
1. Aboriginal Australians do not have a voice. FALSE.
There are 1,000 communities advising government.
2. There is not one nation-state that has not had a rough start.
– Discriminatory rules that once existed have all disappeared.
Aboriginal Australians DID have the vote before the 1967 Referendum.
Aboriginal people in most States have always had suffrage.
– After 1788 they were British subjects, then Australian citizens.
– Many protections in place, so many people have seen Australia as a place of opportunity and fairness. It is a ‘melting pot’.
3. Around 20 years ago, we were told that this country is ‘racist’. Not the experience of Warren Mundine, because
– our institutions make it possible to address any issues.
A group of Aboriginal people went to Uluru and came up with the idea of ‘the Voice’, but it would undermine those institutions and make things worse.
5. The government guise is that ‘the Voice’ is about being ‘nice’ to Aboriginal people.
6. Real empowerment is economic participation: having a job, running a business, owning a home. Not wrapping up one bureaucracy with another black bureaucracy.
Professor Gabriël Moens, an Australian legal scholar originally from Belgium.
Encourages the NO vote.
Subject of his PhD thesis was equality – a ‘colourblind’ society in which there is equal treatment for all; no special rights and no distribution of benefits on the basis of race.
Australia will be racist if ‘the Voice’ referendum succeeds.
People should be appointed on merit rather than race.
– he wants ‘political equality to reign supreme’.
Arguments
1. Repeatedly told by government that ‘the Voice’ is going to be an advisory body only be called upon for matters that affect Aboriginal people.
– all laws affect Aboriginal people (because the law is currently applied equally)
2. ‘The Voice’ will be another example of ‘symbolism over substance’, just like the Aboriginal flag displayed everywhere but it does not help anyone. We need substance not an expensive symbol.
3. The composition of ‘the Voice’ is shaky.
– There will be a need to develop a system to establish who is and who is not Aboriginal. That system will be onerous and dangerous, an ‘unhealthy development’ characterising people by their appearance/blood.
4. Told by the PM that we need ‘the Voice’ as part of the reconciliation process.
– but what does ‘reconciliation’ mean? Does it apply to other peoples?
5. The Voice will be a slippery slope towards sovereignty and a treaty.
6. Equality of opportunity.
– We all want to be treated equally and to share equally in the benefits of Australia.
– Of course, we want Aboriginal people to be treated equally and to have equal representation – as Australian citizens they already have representation.
Mr Luca Proietti Formaggio, a young Australian, convener of Generation Liberty at UWA.
1. A concept of law is innocent until proven guilty.
The Voice proposal is a mistrial of legislation concerning referenda.
– government only wanted pamphlets for the ‘yes’ vote
– government wants a misinformation line specifically to target the ‘no’ vote.
Fairness is not the point of ‘the Voice’.
2. AN example. New Zealand has a Maori ‘voice’ and a treaty.
– in less than 15 years, that ‘voice’ went from an advisory body to a Maori-only court who made all kinds of decisions while unrestricted.
– Maori-only seats in the Parliament.
3. Why is Australia pushing it?
– it is an attack on sovereignty. There is no such thing as co-sovereignty. You are either in charge or you are not in charge.
If Australia has no borders, values, etc. in common, we will be divided, and that will tear our institutions down.
More money and bureaucracy cannot fix the plight of the Aboriginal population, they can only do it themselves.
Civilisationists Summary
In the Civilisationists what we believe in flyer, the first four values are:
- A Western parliamentary democracy (One vote for all )
- One law for all
- A unified multi-racial society and nation, rather than a country made up of numerous diverse ‘multi-cultural’ ethnic and social groups.
- Equality of race
The voice is in direct opposition to these values so vote NO