The Deception of the Voice By Paul Walker

The Prime Minister in defending the Voice has addressed the issue of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. In parliament he has said that the document is on A4 page long, and he held up a piece of paper. Then the prime minister responded to the claim that the actual document is 26 pages long, by comparing such claims to various absurd conspiracy theories, such as the fake moon landing.

Unfortunately for him, a Freedom of Information request did review the full document as being 26 pages long, containing inconvenient material for Albo, dealing with treaty making. It is unclear what the leader of the Opposition, so called, was doing when this went down. One can see the Albo comments here at this link:

https://twitter.com/therealrukshan/status/1688781051219640321

Here, from a previous article is all the telling material from the Uluru Statement, which shows its agenda of a treaty, reparations and a South African style truth commission:

https://ulurustatement.org/the-statement/

1.Claim of Rival Sovereignty to the Commonwealth

“Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,000 years ago. This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown. How could it be otherwise? That peoples possessed a land for sixty millennia and this sacred link disappears from world history in merely the last two hundred years?”

2. The Voice will Embody a Makarrata, Treaty and Truth Commission, Presumably Along the South African Lines

“We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country. We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution. Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination. We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.”

3. Aboriginal Sovereignty Pre-existed British Settlement and Continues

“We have coexisted as First Nations on this land for at least 60,000 years. Our sovereignty preexisted the Australian state and has survived it. ‘We have never, ever ceded our sovereignty.’ (Sydney) The unfinished business of Australia’s nationhood includes recognising the ancient jurisdictions of First Nations law.3 ‘The connection between language, the culture, the land and the enduring nature of Aboriginal law is fundamental to any consideration of constitutional recognition.’”

4. The Settlement of Australia was Unlawful

“The Law was violated by the coming of the British to Australia. This truth needs to be told.”

5. Australia was Invaded by the British

“Australia was not a settlement and it was not a discovery. It was an invasion.7 ‘Cook did not discover us, because we saw him. We were telling each other with smoke, yet in his diary, he said “discovered”.’ (Torres Strait)8 ‘Australia must acknowledge its history, its true history. Not Captain Cook. What happened all across Australia: the massacres and the wars. If that were taught in schools, we might have one nation, where we are all together.’ (Darwin)9 The invasion that started at Botany Bay is the origin of the fundamental grievance between the old and new Australians: that Australia was colonised without the consent of its rightful owners.10 Now is an opportunity for the First Nations to tell the truth about history in our own voices and from our own point of view.11 And for mainstream Australians to hear those voices and to reconsider what they know and understand about their nation’s history. This will be challenging, but the truth about invasion needs to be told. ‘In order for meaningful change to happen, Australian society generally needs to “work on itself” and to know the truth of its own history.’ (Brisbane)12 ‘People repeatedly emphasised the need for truth and justice, and for non-Aboriginal Australians to take responsibility for that history and this legacy it has created: “Government needs to be told the truth of how people got to there. They need to admit to that and sort it out.”’ (Melbourne)13 Invasion was met with resistance.”

6. Makarrata is a Treaty, No Mere Symbolic Representation: There will be Two Sovereignties and a Divided Australia, by Definition

“The invasion of our land was met by resistance. But colonisation and dispossession cut deeply into our societies, and we have mourned the ancestors who died in the resistance, and the loss of land, language and culture. Through the activism of our leaders we have achieved some hard-won gains and recovered control over some of our lands. After the Mabo case, the Australian legal system can no longer hide behind the legal fiction of terra nullius. But there is Unfinished Business to resolve. And the way to address these differences is through agreementmaking.36 ‘Treaty was seen as the best form of establishing an honest relationship with government.’ (Dubbo)37 Makarrata is another word for Treaty or agreement-making. It is the culmination of our agenda. It captures our aspirations for a fair and honest relationship with government and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.38 ‘If the community can’t self-determine and make decisions for our own community regarding economic and social development, then we can’t be confident about the future for our children.’ (Wreck Bay) 39 Through negotiated settlement, First Nations can build their cultural strength, reclaim control and make practical changes over the things that matter in their daily life.40 By making agreements at the highest level, the negotiation process with the Australian government allows First Nations to express our sovereignty – the sovereignty that we know comes from The Law. ‘The group felt strongly that the Constitution needed to recognise the traditional way of life for Aboriginal people. … It would have to acknowledge the “Tjukurrpa” – “our own Constitution”, which is what connects Aboriginal people to their creation and gives them authority.’ (Ross River)41 ‘There is a potential for two sovereignties to co-exist in which both western and Indigenous values and identities are protected and given voice in policies and laws.’ (Broome)42

7. The Voice is about a Treaty

 “Any Voice to Parliament should be designed so that it could support and promote a treaty-making process.”

“Anthony Albanese promised a treaty between the Commonwealth and Indigenous people in his election night victory speech in 2022 when he said: “on behalf of the Australian Labor Party, I commit to the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full”.”

The Prime Minister and the YES Voicers need to be grilled on these issues.