Open letter to Human Rights Commissioner re the voice

Dear Mr Tan,

I wrote and published my views on the voice within this blog because of concerns I have with Australia altering the constitution based on ‘a vibe’. This is a great line out of a great Australian movie but in reality it’s moronic and has no place in a grown-ups culture. Indeed, key words should be ‘dignity, respect and honour’ along with ‘clear strategic thinking’ but without shouty personal agenda driven power seeking obfuscation.

My wife and I are vehemently anti-racist enjoying the great Australian acceptance of everyone as equal and everyone contributing to our culture as individuals but with both rights and obligations. Simple! We don’t ‘like’ everyone but most certainly ‘respect’ them as individuals.

There is a clear need for indigenous recognition but a need not based on ‘race’. Treating one mob differently just because of colour / history / eta alia is without doubt racist especially when that preferred group has power forcing Parliament to consult on anything and everything.

I have also put forward an intervention [within this blog] based on simple but provable change agents including education. As a throwaway line – ‘One weeks interest bill on The Andrews Debt Folly would pay for these interventions!!’

The Voice will devolve Australia into divisions based on race – this is wrong, against our ethos and culture of ‘we are one’ and against our world’s-best system of Government.

Please don’t let the shouty brain-mouth disconnects negatively influence clear strategic thinking, with attendant dignity, respect and honour for every individual based on being human, not based on racial vilification as ‘The Voice’ will do! Open clear headed non-shouty public discussions [not mere conversations] from our leaders would be appropriate.

Mr Tan, your reported comments on The Voice were It's about participation, it's about equity, it's about elevating the position of First Nations' people. It is about a well-deserved and a well-canvassed position and a journey we have travelled for a long time about finding a way out and moving forward to support our Indigenous peoples. May I suggest ‘elevating’ the position of indigenous peoples’ is critical but not at the expense of the other 96% of Australians who also have rights and obligations and privileges. We don’t need to change our constitution to engender participation and equity. Equity, yes as a recognition we don’t all start from the same history and the imbalances are obvious and need to be fixed but not at the expense of equality or ‘we are one’. To me ‘human rights’ are intrinsically simple in that honour, dignity and respect within the ‘we are one’ framework is the overarching strategic blueprint for a supportive culture. By the way, ‘respect’ is not earned, it is a God given right.

Always in good faith and best regards and good futures for our beautiful multiracial democratic country where equity is sought and equality is a given.