Australia has ‘nothing to fear’ from yes vote, prime minister will say
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As Anthony Albanese prepares to deliver his keynote speech at the Garma festival focusing on the voice to parliament, our chief political correspondent Paul Karp looks at how he has been struggling to counter the negative tactics of the no campaign.
In particular Paul looks at how the prime minister, after being questioned about a T-shirt he once wore with the slogan “Voice, treaty, truth”, got tangled up in the issue about whether or not a yes vote in the voice referendum will pave the way for a wider treaty.
It is arguable that facts like Albanese wore a treaty shirt, Albanese supports the Uluru statement, and Labor has given funding for a Makarrata Commission are not very newsworthy because they lack currency.
These things don’t simply “emerge” – they are resurfaced by the opposition and imbued with a renewed significance by reporting in the context of the referendum debate. Putting the second and third planks of the Uluru statement back in front of the public creates a problem for Albanese, requiring him to disentangle them from the voice.
There are more intellectually honest ways of having this argument. Dutton could simply have said: although treaties aren’t on the ballot, a no vote will stop them before the idea catches on.
But that would force voters to confront whether the real motive of the no campaign is to stop the long, slow walk of reconciliation.
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2023-08-04 17:07:37
Link from www.theguardian.com
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