Finding the narrative of The Voice

If you believe the media, the Yes vote for The Aboriginal Voice to Parliament is in trouble. It’s wavering, it’s losing support. Whether or not this is true is unimportant and irrelevant. What’s clear is that the Yes campaign has lost control of the narrative of The Voice debate. And if they are to win they need to find a story to tell, a story that will unify the campaign and give people something to aim for.

The media, ironically, does not really care for stories unless they are epics or simple, so instead they cling to polls and talking heads spewing analysis and guff. Usually this is based on polling, as if mathematical analysis can tell us everything we need to know about the human condition. Basically, the role of the media in The Voice debate is to do everything possible to bore the public into submission.

The regressive No's love this. They have no story to tell. They just have anxiety to spread, fears to uphold and lies to fester in the brains of people who are already anxious and scared of an uncertain future. A bored public who has no real story to believe is easy to fool. So all team No has to do is sow doubt, and let people's natural fear, or the apathy the media and pollsters are spreading, take root. It is cynical. It is, arguably, lazy evil. But then again much of modern conservatism is anyway. These regressives also wish to claim victimisation. The Voice will rob them of something (they don’t know what), and they complain that they’re being called names for opposing it. This false victimisation is another tactic of modern, immoral, conservatism.

On the other hand, the progressive no, as they've labelled themselves, do have a story to tell. It's one of horror, of dispossession, of a land and peoples ravaged by the 'civilized' savages who came here from Europe; raping and pillaging as they went. Acting as subhuman and now offering only the smallest crumbs to peoples they attempted to destroy. This no demands more. It sits in total opposition to the mainstream No; but will result in the same outcome. Nothing will change. That's the ending they leave out of their story. For them the story ends with a continued fight.

But it is a fight against impossible odds, destined for defeat. The stuff and story of honour, sure. But still a defeat that will benefit no one. There can be no victory from this defeat.

This is the ground where the Yes narrative can begin.

Which leaves one question, what is the story that can be told?

It is similar to the progressive no, but has a very important difference; it’s filled with hope for the future. It’s a story that sees The Voice as the start of something new.

It is the story of the beginning of a new story.

It will allow us to finally reckon with the past, to close that chapter, and start a new one.

It is a story that sees true conciliation as the end goal of this next chapter. Not the blind fold of the regressives who secretly disdain this country, nor the continuing war, hate and violence of those who call themselves progressives. The Voice will give this country a route to finally end the violence. It will begin the end of ‘Colonial Australia’, that British outpost in these South Seas, and begin a new Australia based on love, empathy and true democracy.

The Voice will be a uniquely Australian Institution, and this cannot be emphasised enough by the Yes campaign. Australians still see themselves as innovators, and the democratic innovations that have begun in this land are the envy of much of the world. From secret ballots, to universal suffrage, to an independent electoral commission making gerrymandering impossible, these are all things that began here.

The Voice is simply another innovation along these lines. Not something to be feared or to be anxious about. It is just another step along the road of democracy.

The Voice is therefore something to be celebrated. Another true Australian democratic innovation.

This is just one story the Yes campaign can tell. A story of hope, of change, of an Australian future of equity and fairness.

An Australian story.

Not a story of fear or hatred or jealousy. That is not the story of Australia or Australians. Surely Australians on the whole do not want to be seen as fearful or hateful or envious or jealous.

Make voting Yes the story of hope.

This is how progress will truly win.