There’s a pub somewhere in the Aussie outback which displays a worn and fraying sign: ‘Free beer tomorrow.’ The larrikin spirit lives on… But could it also be a warning to Australians that not all promises are kept, nor all hopes fulfilled. Perhaps the claims for the healing properties of the Voice would be as illusory as tomorrow’s beer.

It is a well-known maxim that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.