Now, when I wrote the “The No Case”, I suddenly realised that it sounded like I was arguing that there was no No Case… which after hearing their arguments, I’m starting to think that maybe that’s about right.
I mean, first we have people complaining that there is an information campaign being funded, so why isn’t there a disinformation campaign being funded?
But then today the “No Campaign” released their ad campaign and their slogan.
Basically, it said:
“Will the Voice cure cancer? Will it prevent climate change? Will it cure erectile dysfunction? Will it bring peace to the Middle East? Will it get the Russians out of Ukraine? Don’t know? Vote No…”
Ok, I may be guilty of saying something that’s slightly wrong but compared to some of the the things that the “No case” is saying, I think of got the gist of it right…
The slogan of “Don’t know? Vote No” is the sort of thing that Scotty From Mad Men would have come up with: that wonderful trick of advertising companies of helping something to stick in your brain by making it rhyme, because when something sticks, it clicks. Slogans like “Be Wise, Alkalise!” or “Beanz means Heinz” (which only partly rhymes even though they’ve deliberately spelled Beans incorrectly to make it look like it rhymes with Heinz…).
But less trivially, when you break down what they’re saying it’s this: “Look, if you’re ignorant that’s fine, don’t inform yourself: Just vote no.”
Obviously, this would be a lot less effective because, not only doesn’t it rhyme, it draws attention to the central fact that the campaign led by Warren Mundane is mainly aimed at appealing to the ignorant…
Now before you get on your high horse and say that you’re well-informed and you’ve read the hundreds of pages of detail and you’re still voting no because you have some concerns, let me assure you that it’s not you I’m talking to… just as it’s not you that the ad campaign is aimed at. After all, it actually says, “If you don’t know…”, which is a pretty clear indication that it’s not appealing to the informed.
Still it would be interesting if Labor or The Greens or the Independents were to apply this strategy to the Liberals. You know something like: “If you don’t know what the Liberal Party’s energy policy is, don’t vote for them!” Although in that case, it might qualify you to stand as a Coalition candidate.
Whatever, it does seem as though the Coalition are prepared to sell out First Nations people by doing whatever it takes to disrupt the Referendum because Labor are the ones proposing it. Since Dutton took over as leader, it’s hard to think of anything that he’s actually supported, even the censuring of Scott Morrison over the fact that he failed to keep his own people informed about his multiple ministries. “Look a lot of us are pretty upset that he did all this stuff behind our backs and we think it was wrong, but putting that on the record,, no, we’re going to go and pat him on the back after the motion.”
Imagine if Pete and Warren and Jacinta had been around in 1967 when there was that Referendum allowing the Aboriginal population to be included in the census and for the Commonwealth to make laws around race. We’d have had: “What laws?” and “We need more detail as to how they’ll be counted”; and “How will we get the census forms to people living in remote communities?” and “This won’t lead to any practical improvement in the everyday lives and any closing of the gap!”
Actually, that last point might actually have some validity…
But even if it does, that’s still no reason for voting down the 1967 Referendum, any more than the fear that the Voice won’t make enough of a difference. The point is that the Voice will either do some good or, in the worst case, do not much at all. Either way, it’s worth a chance.
What are we left with, if those who have No idea were to succeed? We’d have to the garbled mess that Jacinta Nampijinpa Price argued for on Insiders which was a lot of local voices that wouldn’t have a central voice in Canberra because once it went to Canberra then people would have to listen to them and that wouldn’t be right because once they were in Canberra then they’d be part of the elite and not worth listening to. You know, they’d be a Canberra voice like her and all the other politicians, so we need to just do something else.
Basically, the poverty of the No case is in their slogan. In general, I’d argue: “If you don’t know, FIND OUT before you open your mouth and make a fool of yourself!”
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