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Nobody (YES or NO) wants to talk about ATSIC. But I think we should talk about ATSIC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_and_Torres_Strait_Islander_Commission
When ATSIC was established in 1990, it was billed as a formalisation of the Tent Embassy (formed in 1972). There's some memory holing around this, but I can say (at risk of some deanonymisation) that this is the story we were told in primary school as it was happening. It was much celebrated with all the same platitudes we have now arguing in favour of the Voice.
15 years later, ATSIC was shut down due to being horribly corrupt.
And then for 18 years we have had approximately.... nothing.
When other government departments are found to be horribly corrupt (eg the NSW police force) we don't just abolish them. We clean them out and try again.
I think that's the best argument for creating a constitutional amendment - not just creating another ATSIC-like entity, but committing to cleaning it up and trying again when it inevitably becomes corrupt.
Ideally, we could put the Voice in charge of those pseudo-religious "acknowledgement of country" ceremonies we now have at the start of every event. A new priesthood, providing a new source of legitimacy for our nation. A spirituality bound to the land itself. Something vaguely god-shaped to fill the hole left by Christianity's untimely demise.
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