Some in the Ivory Tower don't seem to be hearing what much of Australia is saying. Firstly the pale skin of some claiming to be indigenous. Surely they don't want to go back to the lifestyle of a minority of their ancestors. Secondly the lack of acknowledgement that forced removal of children may have helped their health and education outcomes. That's why it continues to this day. Thirdly they are already getting plenty of financial help. An ABC fact check a couple of years ago concluded aboriginal people were getting an average $60k a year of additional government spending.

Then there's the way they can veto big projects in a way that non-indigenous people can't. That could be despite not living in the affected area for decades if not a century. A friend of mine proposes an alternative to National Sorry Day. He calls National Get Over It Day.

Any change in the constitution should have a sunset clause.
Otherwise in the future generations there will be a privileged
class of people indistinguishable from the rest who have a special
say in how the country is governed.
From the start is it proposed that white aborigines will have a vote
or say in what the "Voice" requires ?

This is a very serious matter and will have to be sorted out before
this goes to a referendum.

In Queensland some overseas visitors made a complaint to the Tourist
office that they paid to see a native ceremony demonstration but
all it was a group of white men prancing around.
They were not taking the mickey, they were serious.

Well, it is not going to live in my heart or my mind. This whole reconciliation, voice, nonsense is pure racism: apartheid; the sort of thing we were so high and mighty about with South Africa, only this time in reverse. It is a racket that will benefit few, and do nothing for the people who need help (if they actually want it). It's a scam, right up there with climate change, republicanism and Covid totalitarianism.

"The desirability of reconciliation can hardly be disputed …".

Oh yes it can, and it is. Not that it will make any difference to the shaming of people who just look like the people who might have done something to other people a long time ago - with the added stupidity of 'reconciling' with other people who are merely descendants of the alleged victims, and who look less and less like the victims. NB Taswegian's second sentence.

I agree with the author that little will be achieved, but I go further: far from "filling hearts", it is more likely that people who agree that all people are equal and should be treated so, will harden their hearts - in many cases against innocent people (pawns of Blacktivists and white self-haters) who don't deserve their ire.

I hope that Australians of all races and hues will reject any proposal to change our Constitution, as they usually do. The previously successful referendum has no bearing on this cowering divisive and racist rubbish.

We have three times the percentage of the actual aboriginal population in Parliament now.

The Victorian government is ensuring Australian history is taught from an Aboriginal perspective by introducing a teaching programme called Aboriginal Change Makers, with historical Aboriginal figures lionised as ‘heroes’, and ‘Eurocentric’ Australia as a construct to be challenged and, presumably, denigrated. This Victorian effort is over and above the overall Aboriginalisation of the national history and social studies curricula, and yet another reminder at how easily the Left wins the battle for impressionable young minds – on history, science, the environment, sexuality, and gender, just for starters – because the Right simply lets them get away with their ideological lunacies and intellectual frauds, let alone successfully advocates counter views based on truth and reality.

There's is so much humbug in this space. I agree with Tas. Let's have a referendum and end the nonsense and the payments (60 grand per) for something done generations ago by other people from, for the most part, a foreign land. If the referendum fails and it might? What then? More of what's mine is theirs activity!?
Alan B.

Referendums never fail as their objective is to ascertain the opinion/will of the majority of the voters, in this they are always successful.
There's the remote possibility of of a tie but it’s almost impossible.