At 77, respected Australian journalist Kerry O’Brien is still distilling news for the masses. His current mission is The Voice to Parliament Referendum.
It’s been several years since journalist Kerry O’Brien graced national television as the long-standing host of ABC’s 7.30 Report and then Four Corners. The former Mosman resident has been far from idle, and Kerry’s latest foray into the literary scene is his attempt to set a few things straight on the public debate around the upcoming Voice to Parliament Referendum.
Kerry’s third book, The Voice to Parliament Handbook, was written in just two-and-a-half months, and without ever being in the same room as co-author Thomas Mayo. The pair are in the middle of a book tour around Australia to promote their ‘handbook,’ a short, easy-to-read explanation of the referendum which cuts through the ‘noise’ currently circulating about the historic referendum (The date has not yet been announced, but is likely around October).
For Kerry, who voted in the 1967 Referendum which acknowledged Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
(ATSI) as citizens in the Constitution, the book comes as part of his ‘recurring path’ reporting on indigenous issues over a 50-year career in journalism. When indigenous campaigner Thomas Mayo approached him to co-write a book explaining the Voice in simple terms, he felt compelled to act.
“I spent my life promoting, fostering and being a part of honest public debate. And I would love nothing more than to see an honest, vigorous public debate around this issue. But the debate we are seeing is not all based in honesty.”
The book advocates a firm ‘yes’ for the referendum, but Kerry says it is for anyone who just wants the facts.
“What I have brought to it is more than 50 years of journalism, where one of my key goals has always been to deal with facts and to deal with the truth and to get to the truth.”
In less than 100 pages, the book outlines the process of the referendum and how the Voice proposal came about. “It’s to get rid of the misunderstanding for those people who want to vote yes…But is also for people who are genuinely wavering and aren’t quite sure one way or the other.”
So what are the facts? Kerry says that what his reporting on indigenous issues has shown him, is that often when policies designed to help ATSI have failed, indigenous advice has been ignored.
“And when Indigenous advice has been taken seriously, the policy outcomes have tended to be more effective.”
The handbook dispels claims that a Voice to Parliament would create a new layer of bureaucracy or unleash a new flow of money for ATSI. “What I think it will mean is money better spent. And the reason it will be better spent is because the policy advice from the Voice will be higher quality and more practical than it has been in the past.”
From an initial print run which was planned for just 8,000, there are now 60,000 books in circulation and counting. Kerry says this shows a great drive by people to get the truth amongst the many ‘furphies’ being spread which are ‘designed to scare people’.
“All we’re asking people to do is stop and listen and think.
“And if it means doing a little bit of extra legwork, it really is important enough for you to pause briefly in your busy lives and take the time to understand this and get past the noise, get past the attempts to confuse, and get past the outright lies.”
Kerry, who is now a grandfather, admits the pace of the book tour is making his head spin. But he has come out of the comfort of his life in the Byron Bay Hinterland, not because he misses politics or television, but because he believes a no vote will do ‘great damage – not just to indigenous people, but for all of us’.
“This is such a rare opportunity for all of us to engage in something wonderfully positive for this nation that will genuinely unite us, not divide us further.
“What have we got to lose?”