In Saturday’s Indigenous voice to parliament referendum ‘we can write a new chapter in Australia’s history’, Linda Burney writes.In Saturday’s Indigenous voice to parliament referendum ‘we can write a new chapter in Australia’s history’, Linda Burney writes.This Saturday we can write a new chapter in Australia’s history.After the dispossession and tumult of colonisation, there was a period of “great silence” – a period of denial about our nation’s history.
Last year I visited a school in a remote community. And, as a former school teacher, I thought I’d ask the kids a pretty common question: '“What do you want to do when you grow up?”I looked around the room and I got nothing. I thought to myself, surely these kids have dreams about their future.I asked again: “You know, when you’re adult and you finish school, what do you want to do?”
The reality is that it costs taxpayers about $11,000 to send a young adult to university. It costs about $148,000 to send someone to prison. If you’re healthy and get a good education, have a safe place to live and get a decent job – these are the building blocks of a good life.