Today, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to announce the date that Australians will cast their vote in a referendum on enshrining an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament in the Australian constitution.<\/p>\n
As with any constitutional referendum, this is a watershed moment for the nation.<\/p>\n
There has been much debate regarding the nature and purpose of the Voice to Parliament, with well-articulated arguments both for and against the proposal. But sadly, the issue has also become politicised and so we can expect vigorous negative campaigning in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n
As we all know, fear campaigns can be politically effective but are also inherently divisive. The recognition of Indigenous peoples in the Constitution is too important an issue to allow it to be decided by fear.<\/p>\n
What better time for us all to be fearless.<\/p>\n
Flinders University has been actively encouraging members of our community to broaden their own knowledge and understanding about the Voice to help inform the decision they will make at the ballot box.<\/p>\n
To this end, we recently held a Fearless Conversation<\/em> to facilitate respectful debate, connecting over 500 members of the community to compelling thought leaders with differing views on the Voice.<\/p>\n Facilitated by proud Torres Strait Islander women Carla McGrath, our Fearless Conversation included a keynote address by Professor Tom Calma AO, followed by a discussion with panellists Ashum Owen, Celeste Liddle, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts, and Dr Rowan Nicholson.<\/p>\n In the spirit of conference, our panellists came together to learn, to explore, and discuss the proposed Voice to Parliament. And while opinions differed, the respectful exchange of ideas ultimately made us all richer.<\/p>\n A recording of the Fearless Conversation<\/em> is available here<\/a>, and I encourage you to explore for yourself.<\/p>\n As part of our ongoing program of activities, the Office of Indigenous Strategy and Engagement, together with the College of Business, Government and Law, is hosting a Voice to Parliament information session on September 8. If you have any questions about what the Voice is, or indeed isn\u2019t, or just want to learn more then please make every effort to attend. \u00a0\\You can find more information about the session here<\/a>.<\/p>\n As the referendum nears, the campaigning on both sides is likely to become vigorous. I encourage you all to be fearless champions of respectful and purposeful debate on this important matter. Debate the issues with family, friends, and colleagues, explain your perspective but also learn from the perspectives of others. That way we can help one another make a well-informed decision.<\/p>\n And as we do, let us all be deeply mindful and supportive of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues and students, for whom this debate is of especially profound importance.<\/p>\n Regards<\/p>\n Colin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to announce the date that Australians will cast their vote in a referendum on enshrining an Aboriginal and Torres […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":397,"featured_media":268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[226],"tags":[1002,1001],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-posts","tag-fearless-conversations","tag-voice-to-parliament"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/vice-chancellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/vice-chancellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/vice-chancellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/vice-chancellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/397"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/vice-chancellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/vice-chancellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/vice-chancellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/vice-chancellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/vice-chancellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/vice-chancellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}