Here is a Taste of What the Voice Will Bring: The Surrender of Tasmania By Paul Walker
Here is a sample, at state level of the sort of proposals that the Voice would get up and running if successful, only multiple it for every state, many times worse. The agreement, the “expanded settlement package” was signed by Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes with the indigenous Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagulk (WJJWJ) Peoples in October 2022, and covers ten council districts, about half the size of Tasmania. The councils claim that they were not included in the negotiations, but were only told of the implications last month. While the claims are “aspirational,” rather than legal, the government claims, we know that the neo-Marxist ideology of anti-racism and white guilt, also behind the Voice, will mean that demands are most likely to not be unmet. All roads, bridges, and public structures could be renamed with indigenous names, waterways co-managed, and veto power will be given to the indigenous groups over many activities. According to one councillor, “The land council has to be consulted on everything and you’ve got to pay for that consultation … We don’t know [how much it will cost]. They might say it’s 20 bucks an hour, they might say it’s 1000 bucks an hour. We don’t know.” Why not $ 1 million per hour?
This has happened now, just under state legislative power. Just imagine what would be done with a change in the constitution, backed by the woke courts? The Voice must not just be defeated, but thrashed.
“Ten Victorian councils covering an area half the size of Tasmania have been blindsided by a settlement agreement that includes a list of proposals that would hand Indigenous groups sweeping powers to rename all roads, bridges and public spaces, co-manage waterways and biosecurity, as well as “preferential” access to council procurement contracts and jobs.
However, the government insists the deal “does not contain legal obligations” or impact current laws and regulations, and instead is an “aspirational” list of ways the traditional owners would like to work with councils, with the help of state authorities.
“We’re not allowed to name roads anymore,” said West Wimmera mayor Tim Meyer, commenting on the proposals in the agreement.
“The land council has to tell us what the road names are going to be from now on. [Legendary AFL coach] Alastair Clarkson’s a local boy here – there’s no chance of ever getting a road named after him now.”
Some local mayors fear that, similar to the experience of the shambolic rollout of Western Australia’s controversial new cultural heritage laws, the agreement will give Indigenous groups effective “veto” power to halt a wide range of activities without approval.
“The land council has to be consulted on everything and you’ve got to pay for that consultation,” said Cr Meyer. “We don’t know [how much it will cost]. They might say it’s 20 bucks an hour, they might say it’s 1000 bucks an hour. We don’t know.”
‘Justice and self-determination’
Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes signed the “expanded settlement package” with the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagulk (WJJWJ) Peoples last October, but the affected councils claim they were not included in the negotiations and were only made aware of the deal just over a month ago when it was presented to them as a “fait accompli”.
The agreement, which will be administered by the Barengi Gadjin Land Council (BGLC), covers 10 council areas in Victoria’s northwest – Mildura, West Wimmera, Northern Grampians, Southern Grampians, Buloke, Hindmarsh, Pyrenees, Yarriambiack, Horsham and Ararat – a total area of nearly 36,000 square kilometres.
The agreement “builds on our existing native title recognition” and is a “significant and respectful further step towards redressing the devastation and destruction that was brought about by the unjust dispossession of our family, country and lifeblood by the colonising Europeans”, the document reads.
Regional newspaper The Weekly Times first reported on the details of the agreement in early July, at which time the full document had yet to be made public, more than eight months after it was signed.
It was uploaded to the Victorian government’s First Peoples – State Relations website on July 21.
“The agreement will help pave the way for a future for our people that is founded on principles of justice and self-determination,” it reads.
“It will provide the means to provide for our economic self-determination and for our culture, traditional practices, and unique relationship to country to be recognised, strengthened, protected and promoted, for us and for all Victorians, now and into the future.”
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