Is This the Longest Bow?
'Indigenous response to Covid proves the Voice is needed': Stanley
I’ve heard some odd arguments in favour of the Voice but, in a crowded field, this one was a doozy.
Former Australian of the Year Fiona Stanley says Aboriginals had the best response to COVID-19 "in the world", and so this proves an Indigenous Voice to Parliament will improve health outcomes for First Nations people.
Huh?
Let me try that again.
Indigenous people had the ‘world’s best’ response to Covid without the Voice, which proves they need the Voice.
Nope. It’s still not making any sense.
Of all the reasons I have heard for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, this is the worst.
Stanely told a panel discussion in support of the Voice on Monday night that …
“Within the first 18 to 20 months of the pandemic, Aboriginal people had six times fewer cases than non-Indigenous people did. How did they do it? They had a voice.”
Not a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament, they didn’t.
Stanely explained that during the pandemic the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation was able to provide advice to the government and that, in her view, the results were good.
So Stanely is saying Aboriginal people used their voice effectively but still need a Voice.
She is arguing that because Aboriginal people already had a voice that worked well, this was evidence that they need a constitutionally enshrined Voice. Because without the constitutionally enshrined Voice they would be left with only the voice they already had that evidently worked so well it gave them world’s best outcomes.
Or to put it another way … what was achieved before something was in place proves that the thing yet to be put in place must be put in place before what was already achieved without it can be achieved.
If only I was an academic or an inner city Lefty - but I repeat myself - I am sure I would understand Stanely’s argument.
Speaking of which, is Stanley’s argument an example of the misinformation and/or disinformation that the government is keen to crack down on?
Or is it just sillyinformation?
The ABC ran Stanley’s comments like they were a slam dunk argument for the Voice. They really do think the Australian public are fools.’
As for Stanley’s claim that the Aboriginal response to Covid was the best in the world, she never went on to say what they response was.
But media reports after the first 18-20 months of Covid where Stanely boasts Indigenous people had world’s best outcomes show the indigenous response to Covid was causing all sorts of problems.
In October 2021 The Guardian reported …
Indigenous people infected with Covid Delta strain at twice the rate of other Australians
Also in October 2021, SBS reported …
Only half of Australia's Indigenous population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19
And we could go on.
Maybe her speech was not misinformation, or disinformation, or silly information. Maybe it was an example what they call ‘Truth-Telling’ which we are promised will come right after the Voice to Parliament has been confirmed.
I read that story and was equally dumbfounded. Staggering mental gymnastics. People competing to see who can twist themselves into the tightest knots to prove themselves most virtuous.
And you are absolutely right that this is the “Truth Telling” we can come to expect.
Comedy that writes itself.
All the more material for you James but let them keep going because the more they push the ‘yes’ vote, the more they are doing to convince people to vote ‘no’.