10 August 2023
By Hannah Wilcox
Local political representatives are campaigning for the Voice to Parliament in the face of national polls which suggest it may struggle to get a majority of votes in a majority of states.
Federal MP for North Sydney Kylea Tink invited Indigenous leader Noel Pearson to join her for a “public conversation” at North Sydney Community Centre recently.
Addressing close to 80 members of the community, specifically targeting parents with young children, Pearson said this referendum was going to be about courage.
“We need trust, we need friendship,” he told Tink. “We can’t do this if we’re fearful of each other. So yes, I agree—this has got to be about courage. And it’s got to be about responsibility.”
“We [Indigenous people] are 3% of the vote. You guys are 97%. And we need the 97%.”
Pearson said non-Indigenous Australians were going to be the ones who ultimately decide the outcome of the campaign. “I applaud your courage because we have to take ownership of this,” he added.
The 1901 constitution was first handed over as a ‘work in progress’, Tink argued, and didn’t represent the diversity present within Australia.
“The original constitution that we now live under was brought to be .. by a very small group of people, and it was dominated by one sex, one type of person, the person that was present at all. To me, there’s an inherent responsibility as Australians to be constantly seeking to improve our constitution,” she said.
“This whole idea that the constitution shouldn’t be changed, to me, seems counterintuitive to who we should be as a nation.”
Voting yes was not about forming Australia, Pearson agreed, but about completing it.
“It is really hard to be part of Australia and to achieve in Australia with the high levels of antipathy from people who have never met an Aboriginal person,” he said.
“We’re going to cross the river to another side where fear is reduced, there’s trust, there’s friendship, there’s belonging and mutual recognition.”
“We’ve got to be actually actively taking charge and taking responsibility rather than lamenting a bad situation,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, North Sydney Council is holding its own “free community information event” at the Independent Theatre on 10 August. It will feature Mayor Zoe Baker, TV personality Kerry O’Brien and Indigenous leader Thomas Mayo, under the moniker “The Voice to Parliament: Listen, Ask & Understand.”
State MP for North Shore Felicity Wilson is also campaigning for the Voice.
She posted on her Facebook page that it is “the greatest chance we have had to date to extend the great promise of Australia equally to all—including our Indigenous peoples.”
She is an active member of the Liberals for Yes group and has appeared with Noel Pearson at a Voice event.