Viv Forbes: How the Big End of Town Gambled and Lost

Australia’s Big End of Town gambled heavily in the Voice referendum - and lost.

Only the Nanny “State” (Canberra) voted “Yes”. But their horse ran last in every other state and territory and now has to be put down.

This costly ($400M) and divisive exercise showed that Australians do not want politicians meddling with their federal constitution. We have learned to distrust proposals supported by big government, big business, trade unions, woke celebrities and the ABC. And the more we heard of this racist proposal, the less we liked it.

Heads should roll, salaries of responsible ministers should be capped and bonuses and pay rises for chief executives and board members should be scrapped for all companies that tried to interfere in the political process. Class actions may be launched.

Heading the “guilty and incompetent” list is QANTAS who even painted “YES” slogans on their aeroplanes promoting a political cause opposed by 60% of Australians. The whole QANTAS board should go (with no free stress counselling).

They were not alone – The Business Council, BHP, Rio, Wesfarmers, Telstra, the big banks, celebrities, sporting bodies and of course “Their ABC” joined the cacophony of unwelcome voices trying to divide Australia by race. It is obvious that a majority of big business customers, employees and shareholders voted “NO”. Customers should boycott these businesses, and shareholders should vote “NO” to their remuneration reports.

We do not want Two Countries or Two Flags - get that second flag off the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Our flag denotes Unity under the Southern Cross – the Black-and-Red flag incites political and racial division.

We do not want to suffer any more “Welcomes” to our own country, or any more invented place names. We do not want race-based treaties from either Albo or State Governments and Peter Dutton should forget forever his proposed Voice referendum No 2.

This should be the end of self-flagellation – this generation is not responsible for injuries done to or by some of our ancestors.

To divide Australians on the basis of skin colour or length of ancestry is more about politics than about justice. We are all Australians and constitutional changes that promote apartheid policies should be permanently rejected.

It is also obvious that most taxpayer-funded black bureaucracies have failed and should go the way of ATSIC and be abolished. Welfare should be determined by need, not by skin colour.

To create jobs in Northern Australia, the federal government should declare a tax holiday for all businesses based north of the Tropic of Capricorn. No more enquiries – just remove the shackles.

And despite having “native title” to far more land per head of population than most other Australians, many aboriginals live in degraded communal enclaves with poor community protection, especially for women and children. All Australians need individual freehold titles they can explore, develop or sell, not communal titles controlled by bureaucrats, academics and politicians.

Viv Forbes is a geologist and economic analyst, who farms in Australia.