Baddaginnie vineyard director and acclaimed University of Melbourne professor Snow Barlow has urged Australians to vote on the Voice to Parliament as a social issue rather than along political lines.
Snow popped into the Ensign office last week to explain why he thought now was the time to forgo the political rhetoric and look at the facts.
“Unfortunately, the Voice has been politicised, which is sad, as it’s not a political issue,” Snow said.
“We are the only developed nation on the planet that hasn’t officially recognised our Indigenous people.”
Snow said the benefits of giving First Nations people constitutional recognition stretched a long way past political slogans.
“I’ve been an academic for most of my life,” he said.
“But I did have three years in Canberra as a chief scientist in the Department of Primary Industries.
“That led me to be involved in a number of international negotiations.
“To have any credibility in international negations, you’ve got to have moral authority.
“International negotiations get pretty frank pretty quick.
“If we are to, for example, pressure the Chinese about their human rights violations against the Uyghur people.
“If Australia wishes to place on record that it objects to their treatment, it will blow up in our face if China can say you don’t even recognise your Indigenous peoples.
“So Australia’s international reputation will be tarnished.
“I’m a proud Australian who likes to feel good about being an Australian, who likes to feel this is an egalitarian nation, where it doesn’t matter how much money you’ve got, who your parents are, you will be given a fair go.
“A No vote challenges that.”
Snow said that was just one of many reasons he hoped the Yes vote would be successful.
“I genuinely believe it will make a difference. And this is not a liberal Melbourne view.
“I grew up in NSW, on the Darling, which has quite an extensive Indigenous population.
“And my work has taken me to many areas of Australia, including Arnhem Land and throughout the Northern Territory.
“So I’ve seen the progress, or lack of progress, being made by the Indigenous people.
“And I think by creating a formal dialogue, which the Voice does, the outcomes of the money that we are spending on our Indigenous communities will be much better.”
Snow said there was a need in Australia to make considerable improvements for Indigenous people on education, health and socio-economic outcomes, which were disastrously behind the rest of the country.
“The progress will be slow, but we’ve got to get it started,” he said.
Snow also pointed to the economic benefits that a Yes victory would bring.
“The figure thrown around in the press a lot is that we spend $30 billion on Indigenous people per year, which is correct in one sense,” he said.
“That is the gross figure, but when you drill down into it, which no-one does, the Indigenous people only receive around $5 billion of that directly from programs that are exclusive for them.
“The remaining $25 billion is spent on social services that are available to all Australians regardless of race.”
Snow said when you looked at social outcomes for Indigenous people, money was not spent effectively.
“The current model is not working,” he said.
“When you look at the cost to Australia. When you look at the cost of the incarceration rate of Indigenous people, it is closer to $15 billion, three times what the government currently provides to Indigenous people for their betterment.
“When you connect those dots, if through a dialogue those outcomes can be achieved, particularly through education, which is the greatest transformative influence on our society, if you reduce the number of Indigenous people incarcerated by one-third, we will save $5 billion.
“Which, at present, is the amount we are spending on direct programs.
“This referendum is not about spending more on our First Nations people. It’s about seeking ways, through dialogue, to ensure the money the government is spending is spent with more impact and achieves much better outcomes.”
Snow also spoke of his frustration at the amount of disinformation and misinformation spread through social media.
“We’ve seen many misleading statements and falsehoods,” he said.
One was that a Yes vote would tie up the High Court, costing taxpayers millions.
“Former high chief justice of Australia Robert French and 70 of his colleagues had to release a statement that, in their opinion, (such an argument) is not true.”
Snow said one thing not up for debate was that what Australia had done in the past to assist its First Nations people had not worked.
“An example in the last year of John Howard’s government. There was a Canberra-based coalition that spent $1 billion on ‘the intervention’ in the Northern Territory and even brought in the army to enforce it, to no avail,” he said.
“There was no lasting positive impact.”
If you haven’t voted already, Benalla’s polling place will be at Benalla P-12 College’s Avon St Campus from 8am to 6am.
To find other polling places across the region, visit www.aec.gov.au/