“It’s not binary”: ABC host weighs in on The Voice
‘Australia’s boyfriend’ and ABC host Tony Armstrong has weighed in on Australia’s The Voice referendum, as people all across the nation prepare to head for the polls in late 2023.
The referendum, in which Australians will be given the opportunity “to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Constitution through an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice”, has been explained by the National Indigenous Australians Agency as an “independent, representative advisory body for First Nations peoples.
“It will provide a permanent means to advise the Australian Parliament and Government on the views of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on matters that affect them.”
Additionally, it is intended to act as part of the government’s commitment to implementing the full scope of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
However, as the time to vote draws closer, opinion has divided in the parliamentary and public eye, with many voicing their take from both sides of the discussion.
And now, Tony Armstrong has become the latest to discuss the vote, all while stressing that the situation was more complex than people had assumed, and that he didn’t know which way it was going to go.
“I truly don’t know if it will be passed or not,” he confessed to Stellar’s Sarrah Le Marquand. “What I think people need to remember with the Voice is that a vote for ‘yes’ and a vote for ‘no’ can both be good things.
“It’s not binary. We aren’t in a world where ‘no’ is ‘bad’ and ‘yes’ is ‘good’. Aboriginal people should be the ones talking the most about this; this is about what’s best for Aboriginal people. I don’t know diddly squat. I’m leaving it to the people who actually know their cr*p to give advice on it. But what I do think is lost in the conversation is the fact it’s not binary.”
Armstrong went on to note his understanding that a ‘yes’ vote could potentially hold the nation back, and that a ‘no’ vote could push it forward - “and vice versa. We don’t know.”
He then explained that the public discourse had framed it as a binary issue, but that the entire situation is “far more nuanced and complex than that.
“I’m going to follow in the path of my leaders; it’s just so complex and becomes another red-hot year for blackfellas, even more so where our very identity will be ripped apart and pulled apart and examined.
“The irony, regardless of whichever way it goes, will be: it’s not necessarily going to be the blackfellas whose vote makes a difference. I’ve never been able to define irony, but I reckon that’s in the ballpark.”
Images: Getty