Opinion: Voice to Parliament and the Anglican Conversation
I post this here, after sending it to the Sydney Morning Herald today and expecting it will be ignored. i remind you this is my opinion expressed to you from my leadership, and not representative of what you think or should think. It answers this question from a recent ABC Q&A episode. Check from 9minutes, 38 seconds.
Yes, Larissa, I will vote Yes.
I can’t remember a time when I thought people hung on the every word of Anglicans. Yet here was Archbishop Kanishka Raffel on Q&A (Monday, April 10th), and here was the probing question from Larissa Minniecon, an Anglican member of Scarred Tree Ministries at St John’s, Glebe.
Larissa’s question to the Archbishop? (Shortened only for clarity’s sake.) ‘I am a member of the Sydney Diocese, and the first Indigenous women to sit as a member of Synod….Will the church respond to the Liberal Party’s No campaign? And will they support the Voice to Parliament?’
Larissa requests her church respond. This is not that response. I don’t speak for the Anglican church. I don’t even speak for my Anglican church. I speak to my church, every week, but I don’t speak for them. They are smart people with varying consciences and capable minds. I would, however, like Larissa to know that she is not alone. Larissa’s says she is from a little church. I am a little voice from a little church too. Little or not, I have heard you, Larissa. You have certainly raised your voice. And I can answer you, on both question, at least on behalf of this churchy Anglican.
Larissa, I can only oppose the Liberal Party’s No campaign. Anglican ministers, as you know, are usually pretty slow to back one party against another, and feel much more comfortable talking about biblical matters like……well, reconciliation. Ahem. But this is not Liberal against Labor, for Peter Dutton has lost key members of his own party, and his opponents are not Labor anyway, but a very broad Yes campaign. They are without party affiliation, but draw broad affection.
I oppose the No campaign because Peter Dutton called it a ‘Canberra Voice’. This is a tragically poor phrase. It mis-educates the nation about the process. The Yes campaign came to Canberra, not from Canberra. It spoke to Canberra in response to a bi-partisan request from 2015, when Malcolm Turnbull and Julia Gillard co-launched the Referendum Council. This, in turn, established 12 First Nations Regional Dialogues. It was expected to report back to Canberra, of course. Perhaps all expected a report that could be filed, instead Canberra received a plea that could not be ignored. This was a culmination of regional voices to Canberra. On these grounds alone, Peter Dutton might be satisfied.
I oppose the No campaign because it shifts the issue. The issue of practical benefit on the ground for Indigenous Australians is always a good issue to work on. It will always be the issue until no benefit is needed again. But this was not the issue that began this process, and Dutton knows it. He was there in 2007 when John Howard promised to deliver a referendum on Recognition by the end of his term. Recognition was the match that lit this fire from the heart. Peter Dutton situating himself near the heart, in Alice Springs, to pick up the optics of a regional crime wave was not honest dealing. It was a classic move away from ‘symbolic’ to ‘practical’. It was every bit as symbolic, and the symbology did not say good things for Dutton’s case. It was issue-shifting.
I oppose it because those who should be Peter Dutton’s good friends on the matter oppose it. The conscientious objections of Ken Wyatt and Julian Leeser have rung out loudly and clearly. They may only be two voices, but what voices! I guess this also proves that a voice to power will not necessarily rob it of its’ power to disagree. Dutton has shown that powerful voices can be ignored. He has ignored them, and they have made that clear and will now raise their voice against the No campaign. I join theirs.
From one little voice to another – I’m enjoying the chat. To answer your first question, Larissa? Yes, I’ll oppose the Liberal Party’s No campaign. And yes, Larissa, I will vote Yes.
Rev Jim Crosweller is an Anglican minister at St John’s, Maroubra