To this we can add a fifth myth about the Voice, perhaps the most significant one. That the origins of the Voice came directly from ATSI people. A notion believed by 17% of Yes voters, according to a recent poll.
In an Op/Ed in today's Tele, Gary Johns describes how the Voice was originally an initiative by a small group of non-indigenous people including constitution conservatives Greg Craven and Anne Twomeny. They made various drafts commencing in 2014 at the Australian Catholic University at the North Sydney campus.
Later workshops conducted at UNSW added Megan Davis, Pat Anderson and Noel Pearson to the group and they produced versions of draft ammendments to the original draft which had sought to retain the primacy of parliament rather than being subjected to High Court judges.
Ultimately constitutional conservatives were sidelined even though they had done most of the drafting and designing.
"In a state of political hubris, Pearson excluded his conservative friends from the drafting room, and devised an amendment (executive representation) he knew they could not wear. He also stood by as activists such as Meghan Davis colonised the Voice and turned it from a conservative model free of judical activism into a judges' junket."
"No idea has a single origin. No idea should be judged good or bad because of the race of the originator(s). But some Yes voters think that the source of an idea is important. This one should never have escaped the lab."
