Frank Salter
Frank Salter explains why the British Australian Community urged a NO vote in the 2023 referendum for an indigenous voice. The referendum was rejected by voters. The principles involved remain relevant because the radical indigenous movement and its sponsors are successfully pushing the states to adopt their own voice bureaucracies. Salter critiques the voice proposal for disrespecting Anglo and national interests, both were ignored in the voice debate. Anglo advocates were (and are) completely excluded from the consultations and deliberations that formulated the voice proposal. This continues their exclusion from ethnic politics in general-from issues of immigration and multiculturalism, as well as from indigenous affairs. The referendum was held amid widespread institutional Anglophobia. Anglo-Celtic schoolchildren were (and are) being taught to despise their ancestors. Undemocratic immigration policy will reduce the founding ethnic group to minority status within a few decades. The voice proposal is also unfair because it excludes recognition of Anglo-Celtic Australia, which created the nation and the Commonwealth. If indigenous people are to be recognised, so should our pioneers and settlers. True reconciliation must rest on reciprocity between the two peoples, both of whom have contributed to national identity.
