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John Gascoigne

10/9/2023

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At pivotal times like these for societal change I feel pride in my native country’s leadership. Foremost among New Zealand’s global agenda setting was its 1893 act of becoming the first self-governing country to grant the vote to all adult women. 
Now Australians are a month from voting on the right of its first people to have a direct voice to the institution that predominantly has dished out punishment and neglect to them for 122 years. The weakest case for No voters is Dutton's own: the Voice proposal lacks detail. Have his people taken 30 minutes to read the Referendum Booklet compiled by our MPs?

When F.D. Roosevelt told his inauguration speech audience in 
1933, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”, he could have been  talking to Australia’s Yes voters looking fearfully across the chasm at the fearful ‘No’ naysayers.

NZ’s Voice moment, in 1867, provided the native Maoris a voice in Parliament; not a voice to Parliament. The legislature now has 15
 Maoris, five of them elected to dedicated seats. NZ is covered by both a general and a Maori electorate; as of 2020, there were seven Māori electorates.
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