Ed,

The voting date for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum will soon be here.

I wonder when Governments decided the decisions for the ethical future of the country should be left to the common man? If you look at the tyrannical despots who have been elected (or perhaps not) in countries around the world, it doesn’t give you much faith in our future does it?

The right of Indigenous people to have their own voice in their future, and indeed the future of all of us, should be a given, just as is the right of gay couples to marry, or women to get safe abortions or people who believe they have no quality of life to have a humane ending. It is certainly no-ones ‘right’ to refuse those people their own thoughtful decisions.

Some people justify their bigotry by saying it is against God’s will. They quote biblical passages in support of this. The bible is not God’s voice. It is the voice of largely uneducated men more than 2000 years ago, interpreting God’s will by their own prejudices, and was written in the time when virgins were ritually murdered to ensure the quality of crops, and old woman herbalists were burned as witches when epidemics swept through villages.

As no-one can know the will of God (should one exist) there is absolutely no reason why believers can’t believe in a kind, understanding, benevolent philosophy which supports equality.

As for not tampering with the Constitution, it was written in a totally different era. These were the times when Indigenous people were classified with the fauna. They weren’t even given the vote until 1962. The Constitution needs ripping up and rewritten in a more enlightened age, as any outdated, no longer fit for purpose, document should be. Legal documents are only worth preserving if they currently truly reflect their purpose.

Jocelyn Wrench, Iluka