LETTER: fact-checking the Member for Lyne David Gillespie's speech on the Voice

No women were involved, no surfers in boardies, no tradies, no fishos, no Chinese miners, no Pacific Islanders, no First Nations peoples of the colonies, just elite men in suits.

It is not surprising that our Constitution has some content that is not inclusive of the diverse people we are in 2023.

The 1967 Referendum made two modest changes.

It removed a clause that had prevented the Federal Parliament from making specific laws for Australia's Aboriginal natives. It also deleted a section that prevented the inclusion of the number of Aboriginal natives from calculating proportional representation in the Parliament.

There is substantial information available on the websites of the National Archives of Australia and the Australian Parliament House describing this.

Why would the Member for Lyne (Dr David Gillespie) circulate a newsletter to all households in the electorate and publish on his website factually incorrect information on the 1967 Referendum.

The 1967 Referendum did not remove race from the Constitution and there are remnant references still present today. The Referendum did not give the right to vote to Indigenous Australians. Rather, in 1962, the Menzies Government passed legislation which enabled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia to enrol to vote.

Understanding our electoral history is vital for informing ourselves in preparation for the 2023 referendum. Does the member for Lyne not value telling us the truth about our constitutional heritage?

Paddy, Port Macquarie

*EDITOR: Paddy has correctly identified an error in David Gillespie's May 23 address to parliament on the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023 - Second Reading. The address is published on the parliamentary record, Hansard, and also on Dr Gillespie's website. Dr Gillespie's office has been contacted for a response.