They say the difference between a conspiracy theory and reality is about a week. But, thanks to the Australian Prime Minister, the difference is now even less than that!
Debate has raged for the past week about the document upon which the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament is based.
Anthony Albanese insists the Uluru Statement from the Heart is a generous, beautiful piece of literature that Shakespeare himself would have been proud to have authored.
He insists the statement (which he reads every day) numbers less than 500 words, and easily fits on an A4 page.
The Prime Minister has been desperate to distinguish what he claims is the Statement from 25 other pages released after a Freedom of Information request.
The full document reveals the Voice to be a “hook” to ensure a treaty - potentially including a percentage of annual GDP being paid to Aboriginal people - can be established in the future.
I wrote about it here.
Albanese insists all attempts to link the full terrifying document to the beautiful, generous. succinct one pager he has been waving around are the stuff of “conspiracy”.
And I’d believe Albo, except that his lips are moving.
Albanese dismissed the idea that the Uluru Statement from the Heart is the longer document, explaining …
“That is a conspiracy in search of a theory … like the QAnon theories, we have all sorts of conspiracy stuff out there, but this is a ripper.”
Albanese managed to declare something a conspiracy theory, not before it was confirmed as reality, but after! He really is quite a remarkable leader.
Anyway, today Megan Davis - one of the architects of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament - wrote a column in The Australian emphatically declaring that the Uluru Statement from the Heart was one page, and no more.
“The Uluru Statement from the Heart is one page. It’s very simple,” she wrote.
She continued …
“The unceasing attempts from the No campaign to take draft documents from conference rooms seven years ago and transcriptions of butchers paper seven years ago to manufacture a controversy over the Uluru Statement is farcical. It reeks of desperation.”
And then she wrote this …
“Who would knowingly and willingly mislead the Australian people? Not us.”
Is that right?
Well, the following are statements made by Megan Davis, word for word:
In her 2018 Parkes Oration she said:
"The Uluru Statement from the Heart isn’t just the first one-page statement; it’s actually a very lengthy document of about 18 to 20 pages, and a very powerful part of this document reflects what happened in the dialogues."
In a 2022 article in The Australian she said:
"The Uluru Statement… is occasionally mistaken as merely a one-page document… in totality (it) is closer to 18 pages and includes… a lengthy narrative called 'Our Story'".
She told a webinar for the Australian Institute in August 2022 that …
"It's actually like 18 pages, the Uluru Statement. People only read the first"
At the recent Sydney Peace Prize award ceremony she insisted …
"It's very important for Australians to read the statement, and the statement is also much bigger it's actually 18 Pages".
Is quoting Ms Davis word for word misleading the Australian people?
Just asking for a friend ….
As to the one-page promo for the voice, who would buy a house based only on total trust in the agent's promotional material? No-one.
Who would change the Constitution based only on a one page promotional piece, ignoring the other 25 pages of detail? No-one with any brains that is for sure.
There are another 25 pages which comprise the Uluru Statement from the wallet, sorry, heart, and the devil is in that detail. Remember to always read the fine print and the other pages are the fine print.
Poor Albo. His intellect can only cope with one page! Forget about the rest,. That must be why he is so keen to have this voice. Look how simple it is? Shakespeare would love it! Really? I guess he could write a very good play about it. Maybe the rest has been written on papyrus,after all, these are the oldest people in the world! They even pre date the flood, somehow they managed to swim for the entire time the earth was flooded wiping out everyone else in the world except Noah and his family .