The Voice is starting to send me hoarse

JOHNNY Farnham released a tune in 1986 called The Voice. It became a cult ditty and huge audiences joined Johnny, word for word, with lyrics including: “You're the voice, try and understand it,

“Make the noise and make it clear. “We're not ‘gonna’ sit in silence, “We're not ‘gonna’ live with fear.” The supporting video featured images of the Vietnam War, 20 years after it ended, domestic violence, seemingly lifeless onlookers, and a bagpiper – none of these made sense.

Now there’s a new “The Voice” in town and it doesn’t make sense either. I am not sure what any of it means and I am sure the politicians supporting and opposing The Voice privately hold the same position.

The very concept of our Indigenous brothers and sisters not having a vote in this country was repugnant and, thankfully, the referendum of 1967 saw that wrong righted when Prime Minister Harold Hold announced a whopping 91 per cent of voting Australians wanted Indigenous people included.

God only knows what the residual 9 per cent of voting Australians were thinking, perhaps they read the referendum guide incorrectly.

Prior to that, Indigenous people were excluded from voting and indeed there were laws specifically intended to deny their right to vote introduced in Queensland (1885), Western Australia (1893) and the Northern Territory (1922).

Today the federal parliament boasts nine Indigenous senators and two lower house representatives – that’s 5 per cent of total parliament numbers, compared to Indigenous people representing 3 per cent of the total Australian population.

Reasonable people would think those numbers are, pleasingly, disproportionate.

Much has been achieved since 1967 and today Indigenous people are provided with thousands of specialised agencies aimed at providing better health, education and employment opportunities, and longer lives – the annual investment for the nation is in the order of $30bn.

There are murmurs state and territory governments might have a crack at The Voice too and who knows maybe some idle councils could get on the bandwagon as well.

Australia is not perfect but it’s more perfect than every other country. I’d rather see the focus, for all Australians, on difficult challenges like poverty, homelessness, depression, domestic violence, suicide, of which 75 per cent are males, local manufacturing, rising interest rates, rising inflation and spiralling crime.

Surely solutions to these challenges are more important than The Voice? Polls suggest between 50 per cent and 60 per cent of voters will support The Voice and if that trend continues the result will meet referendum success criteria of a “national majority of voters in states and territories” and a “majority of voters in a majority of states”.

Boring and wasteful times ahead – the sooner it’s over the better.