<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/30/australia-was-not-big-enough-to-vote-for-the-voice-says-stan-grant>
"The journalist and academic Stan Grant has spoken of his feelings of
disappointment and rejection at the defeat of the Indigenous voice referendum,
critical that public figures who talk about racism in Australia are
characterised as “troublemakers” in media discourse.
The Wiradjuri man lamented the referendum loss as a missed opportunity to
better help Indigenous people, saying today’s political processes are “not
enough” to address disadvantage. In a speech to the Australian National
University on Monday, Grant was critical of the no campaign’s attacks on the
voice but also questioned the yes campaign’s strategy.
“The voice was never a modest ask, it was monumental,” he said. “Perhaps this
was the opportunity lost by the yes campaign, to not let the voice truly speak.
“Instead it was shushed … shrunk small enough to fit into politics. In the
consultants’ suites and the lawyers’ dens, it was determined that if the voice
was made so inoffensive people may say yes. Instead it was so inoffensive
people found it so easy to say no.”
Grant, the director of Monash University’s Constructive Institute Asia Pacific,
delivered the keynote speech at ANU’s Crawford Leadership Forum. In a
wide-ranging and emotive address, titled
The witness of poetry: how history is
too heavy for democracy, Grant spoke of his reaction after the 14 October vote
failed.
“Our nation is set in stone: one word, no,” he said. “Whatever hope there may
be for a different Australia, I likely won’t live to see it.
“This morning I am hearing that word: no. That word without love. That word of
rejection. That word from which no other word can come. This morning in the
darkness I am hearing the cold-hearted no of a country so comfortable it need
not care.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
