Dear Fester,

You pontificate: "The Voice could make the expenditure of public money more obscure and so make it less likely to help indigenous Australians in need.

I hope that a no vote will also precipitate the demise of welcome/acknowledgement of country and "Sorry" card activities for little kids. It will be good to bury apartheid and celebrate a future of equality."

What a silly post.

The Voice will not disburse funds. Rather it is far more likely to better direct effort with more efficiency by giving appropriate advice to government.

Your totally ungracious and blinkered views on welcome to country ceremonies which are becoming part of wider Australian culture is piss poor.

But it is your last point which is just obscene given the continuing and in some cases worsening life outcomes and disadvantage facing so many Indigenous kids. Theirs is not a future of equality. You know it yet chose to ignore it and offer up a platitude instead.

Nasty.

Again I reiterate that it is my belief that the vast majority of 'NO' voters, and there are millions Australia wide, are not necessarily racialist. The 'NO' voter in the main is misguided and prejudiced against Aboriginal Australians, has a blinkered view based on misinformation and stereo-typing. Unfortunately Australians may not be mature enough to embrace the true principles of fairness and equality for their black brothers and sisters, come October 14th they may well retain the status quo. The group of old white men on the forum who are arguing strongly for a "NO' vote, are certainly bigoted, and do sometimes wander over the line into the area of racism, but they too might simply be conservative misguided fools fearful of change.

I have looked at the track record of Peter Dutton, and he is certainly and educated racists.

Bleating racism is literally the only option left as an argument for the racists !

ttbn,

Thank you for your suggestion about a child-care center.
However, I already do Storytime sessions at a municipal
library and run book-clubs for school children. Plus I
have my own grand-kids who visit regularly. Again,
I welcome your positive suggestions.

ttbn,

I've also been invited to be a volunteer at an
aged care facility associated with a large public
hospital. I was there as part of a Transition
Care Program run by the hospital when I had my
fall recently. It seems that they miss me and
want me back. I miss them as well. So I've got
a lot on my plate.

Interesting discussion. It seems that there are some double standards at play here. To what extent has parliamentary democracy at both state and federal level been able to stop the vice? Why have so many people called for some form of independent body to investigate corruption on the part of our politicians?
Anyone who has followed the way the Brexit vote was handled and much of Trump's political success will recognize that the No campaign is following a well trodden path of misinformation and scare tactics. Furthermore increasingly there is evidence that there are players outside of Australia who would prefer a no result and are busy creating mischief.
Who are these outside forces? Organizations like those funded by Koch brothers. The challenge for them is thatif the Voice is successful it will create a precedent that governments need to consult and listen to those people impacted by any decisions that are made.
So dont be fooled, a No Vote is a far bigger threat than a Yes vote.