Anything to make you happy Foxy :)

And a stirring "Farrah Fox is full of ideas" poem, I must say.

Here's you with the world's most famous fox, Basil Brush http://youtu.be/E41yqUTDlR4?t=1m3s

You sing like a pro Foxy.

Cheers Mavs

Good Morning Mavs,

Thank you for the link. You have made me happy.

You're a classy guy.

Hi Mavs

You gave me a mention even before I've contributed. I am in favour of the 'Voice' I don't consider it racists and Aboriginal inclusion within the Constitution is overdue. The fact they were not considered in 1901 is simply a reflection of the white settler attitude that prevailed at the time, and things have changed in the last 122 years.

Lidia Thorpe is going beyond what is proposed by the 'Voice' referendum, and is talking Aboriginal "sovereignty", something that doesn't have majority support at the moment. One of the sticking points concerning the Treaty of Waitangi is the word "sovereignty" which was written into the English version whereas the Maori version used the word for "Governance" which has a different meaning. BTW if Australia should ever enter into a treaty with Aboriginal people we should never use The Treaty of Waitangi as a model, a treaty written in two days by men who had no knowledge of writing a treaty.

Hi Paul

I evoked your name even before you contributed because I know you bring important insights to debates. This is even if we are on opposing YES and NO sides.

Well argued points count. There's nothing worse than many threads that consist of extremist Tweets, where even the initiator doesn't bother to provide details.

I feel that the Voice will be stacked with Politicians who just happen to be Aboriginal. This is because often a Western Uni education, and frequently legal, corporate or academic career paths are part of their makeup.

They are ambitious, like Lidia, who I suspect will see her way into the Voice, if it ever gets up, as yet another string to her career bow. She'll be in the Voice structure even while she maintains the advantage of a Senate position.

And yes Lidia's talk of "sovereignty" and Treaty is way ahead of what the public and mainstream politicians will wear.

Politics being a cynical business I advocate the age old My Enemy's (the Voice) main Enemy (Lidia) is my "friend".

Basically nothing turns people off the Voice more than a conflation with the scary image of Aboriginal Seperatist Lidia. Before Lidia was Michael Mansell, who did no end of damage to Aboriginal brand http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Mansell#Activism_and_commentary .

I see a change to the Constitution that favours one Race as a type of separatism, though short of Lidia's ambitions.

Where would Australia be if a future corrupt structure, arising from the Voice, like an ATSIC 2.0, could not be dissolved by the democratically elected Government?

It would then fall to the High Court to interpret the Constitutional position of the Voice. In that sense the High Court, a body not elected by the people, would back up Voice permanency.

As the Voice would represent about 900,000 people, it could by definition influence almost all legislation.

If the Voice represents 900.000 aboriginals, then the 27,000 who live in poor remote conditions will not get a look in to Government. The problems of remote communities will remain. The WA Government offered to rehouse those living in the bush so that health and education and town services could serve them, they refused. They did not want to move from their country. That is well and good, but they cannot expect town services in remote bush.

The 883,000 who live in towns and cities will be the ones from whom the voice representatives will come, and they are equal to every other Nationality living in Australia and they do not need a special Voice. Albo is out of touch with reality and the ultimate goal of radical half caste aboriginals who believe the land belongs to them. It was stolen as were the children.

Hi Mavs,

I always respect your thoughtful contributions on any subject. The founding fathers of this nation had no problem with racism in the Constitution, they wrote in many discriminatory clauses, mostly directed at Orientals. The FF's completely ignored Aboriginal people as if they didn't exist, that might have been appropriate for the time with the settler mentality, but today its a mistake. No feel good words added to the Constitutions Preamble will satisfy, its time to give true recognition of Aboriginal people within the Australian Constitution itself, not less will satisfy. I believe the Voice is a moderate preposition put foreword, not by white people, but mainstream Aboriginals themselves through the 'Uluru Statement From The Heart' in 2017. If someone has a viable alternative I would like to hear it, a treaty is not a viable alternative for me, maybe at sometime it will be, but it wont fly politically right now.