Voice referendum: it's not rocket science

He might have been thinking about astrophysics, but he may as well have been talking about more earthly matters such as the gap in outcomes for our first Australians in life expectancy, education levels, health and housing.

When you are dealing with critical issues like these there is a high motivation to try something new if what you have done so far hasn't worked out the way you hoped. Hardly controversial right?

Ok let's throw in this revolutionary concept.

Do you reckon that politicians should at least be required to listen to the Australian people who are most affected by their decisions?

After all they are supposed to represent us and we do pay their wages.

No, it's not a trick question.

If there is one thing that stands out in Australian politics in the last 20 years it is the general disillusionment with government and politicians at all levels.

Politicians who have lost touch with the people who elected them and the strong conviction they are not listening to what we are saying, what we want done to fix the essential services that we elected them for and expect them to deliver.

I guess we shouldn't be surprised that the suggestion of including this point in our constitution, to require our politicians to listen to the voices of the people most affected by their decisions, has gone down like a lead balloon with some of our elected representatives who are not used to the idea.

Let's face it, it's been an Oscar winning dummy spit performance by the NO brigade.

If the idea of listening is so foreign to some of our politicians or they are so out of practice, we can throw in the hearing aids but surely this is not Nobel prize territory, it is common sense.

So what is really going on here?

Why would anyone be pushing a No vote for something that most Australians would expect to be happening already?

Is it as simple as the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and his mates playing politics and scoring points against their opponents, hoping the referendum fails?

Is it Rupert Murdoch, the former Australian, doing his muck raking best by using his newspapers and Sky network to drum up division as he does in America?

Or are some Australian voters so disillusioned with politicians that they would vote 'No to free beer' in a heatwave if it was served up to them by a pollie?

Unfortunately, there appears to be a combination of all of the above at work but hopefully not enough to derail the movement for change.

Let's get to the point.

Peter Dutton says he is not against the Voice to Parliament in principle if it were established by the Parliament, he just doesn't want it in the Constitution because he doesn't have enough detail and is concerned about the risks this might pose.

This is a sneaky way to say he doesn't support it at all and if he ever becomes the prime minister he wants the power to get rid of it.

Just imagine if Peter Dutton was one of the 'Founding Fathers' of the Federation during the referendums of the 1890s.

You wouldn't get a YES out of him to establish the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 unless you could lock in the postcodes of the capital city and provide the architectural drawings of Parliament House.

Our Constitution was never designed to replace the Parliament in making laws and prescribing the detailed structure and operation of all the institutions it enshrines and recognises.

Its role is to define key powers and relationships of our governing institutions and basic democratic rights and protections of the Australian people.

Most importantly here, it was designed to be changed where that was required and determined by the people.

It needs to evolve with the needs of the nation whilst protecting the democratic rights of the people and the accountability of the executive and parliament to them.

A Voice that is established by the government of the day without constitutional protection can be just as easily dismantled by the opposition that wins the next election and becomes the government of tomorrow.

Unless our voices are enshrined in the constitution they can be eliminated, diminished and ignored by politicians.

We have a historic opportunity to hear, recognise and protect the voices of the people, our first Australians in the referendum on the 14th of October, let's not waste it. Yes?