‘Questions which relate to the whole body of the people, to the purity of race, to the preservation of the racial character of the white population, are Commonwealth questions and should be so exclusively’.

Australia has a racist constitution. It gives the Federal Parliament power to make laws for ‘The people of any race, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws’. Deemed necessary, that is, by the Parliament itself.

Given the failure of the Morrison and earlier governments to improve Aboriginal welfare (‘Closing the Gap’ remains merely an aspiration) this is not a particularly appealing response. But the fact that Dutton keeps raising questions about the voice designed, it appears, to sabotage the referendum, suggest he will either avoid committing his party either way, or else reluctantly advocate a ‘yes’ vote, so that if the referendum fails he can blame the government’s strategy, tactics and general ineptitude.

We are in for an unedifying six or more months until we get to vote.

Source: Australia’s racist Constitution and the Voice – Pearls and Irritations