Dear Shaggy Dog,

For this referendum to succeed will be a monumental
achievement for this nation. And to arrive at this
much needed destination explanations are needed to
explain to Australians WHY the Voice is needed.

Indigenous policies are alien to most people and the
loudest voices on the subject are often the politicians
who were most ineffective in this policy area.

Pat Anderson told a story decades ago at the National
Press Club.

It's about an old man from the Top End. He's now long gone
but this is what happened to him. He was living quietly
on an outstation near Kakadu.

One day some government workers drove up in a 4 wheel-drive
while the old man was sitting out the front of his tin shed.
He got up and introduced himself and showed them around a bit.

As they were leaving they asked him if there was anything he
needed?

"Oh yeah," he said. "If you're coming back this way, you could
bring me a couple of packets of tomato seeds. I'd like to try
to grow a few tomatoes here for myself."

Well, the government workers went back to town and told their
boss about the old man, who wanted to grow tomatoes on his
outstation. And their boss told their boss, and so on.

After a while people start arriving at the old man's outstation.
Geologists come and take soil and rock samples. Meteorologists
arrive with all sets of gadgets to measure wind speed and
rainfall. Ecologists set up camp to study the ecosystem and
do environmental impact studies.

Agronomists arrive to do flexibility studies on market gardens
in the tropics. All the while the old man sits in front of
his tin shed watching this very entertaining activity.

Eventually, after several months, one of the scientists comes
up to the old man and asks him how he is?

"I'm fine," says the old man. "But I'm still waiting for the
packets of tomato seeds."

Foxy, I have been watching the problems close up for nigh on 60 years and have seen little change for the better if any at all. Rather the reverse. I lived in Alice Springs in 1964 and have rarely been any distance from all the problems since. The Voice may ring some changes if passed but I doubt for the better. Sadly I feel it will turn out to be just another layer of bureaucracy. SD

Dear Shaggy Dog,

The 1967 referendum when Australians voted YES to
the federal power to make laws for Aboriginal people
recorded the highest YES vote in the history of
Australian referendums.

I have faith in the fundamental decency of the Australian
people. The 2023 referendum campaign will determine whether
the faith is misplaced or not.

Journalist Niki Savva wrote: " While it's not true to say
that every Australian who votes no is a racist. You can bet
your bottom-dollar that every racist will vote no."

The cumulative wealth and power of the rusted-on no voters,
their prominence in media ownership and on corporate boards,
their conservatism and unwillingness to commit to social
change can easily be juxtapositioned with Australians who
believe in social change and inclusion.

The last election demonstrated a ground swell for action on
federal corruption, climate change and the Uluru Statement
From The Heart, Many Australians are beginning to see a need
for action and that the old ways are not working. People
who have experienced bureaucracy as mean-spirited and punitive
even the hundreds of thousands who experienced 1st hand the
robodebt scheme - now begin to question everything.

As I said- I have faith in the Australian people. New Australians
from the rump of the majority. The YES voters that are the
heavy lifters of multiculturalism and social cohesion in this
nation. People who come from the Middle-East, North Africa,
South Asia, followers of Islam, Buddhism, Greek Orthodox, and
Catholic faiths. People with low incomes who live in working-
class areas - these are the new Australians that will make
the "fair-go"a reality for all

Dear mhaze,

Get your hand of it mate.

This is about critical thinking.

The main basis for the child eating trope which you and Quadrant have tried to run was ultimately oral evidence from a swagman. There wouldn't have been a solitary Australian swagman worth his salt who couldn't spin a good yarn. Must have sounded authentic to a Polish professor sitting in Warsaw though.

The second thing offered was this: “In hard summers the new-born children seem to be all eaten in the Kaura tribe. [Explorer Alfred William] Howitt inferred this from the remarkable gaps that appeared in the ages of the children”

So age gaps appearing in children means you go straight to 'Well they must have eaten them all!' Back then that conclusion might have been understandable with all the lurid tales of 'Blacks' circulating but it is just stupid now.

Come on, even someone as agenda drive and gullible as yourself must see how tenuous all this is. Enough already.

I bow to your knowledge and expertise Foxy. My comments are only what I have seen and experienced over many years and are obviously limited as a result. SD

Dear Shaggy Dog,

I've made my decision of supporting the YES vote to
the Voice based on the research I've done. I can't
pretend to know all the answers or have all the
solutions. The issues are complex and all I can do
is vote what to me seems right. That's all any of us
can do.