It remains puzzling and baffling in the extreme that well-intentioned and intelligent people go on insisting that the proposed Indigenous Voice to parliament is not racist. One writer in the Australian (unnamed here to protect the guilty) doggedly wrote that the Voice is not a racist proposal, it just singles out Indigenous people because of ‘their descent from the earliest inhabitants’. Eh? Doesn’t ‘descent’ equal ‘race’? My ‘race’ is the forebears I am descended from.

When otherwise thoughtful defenders of the Voice resort to such thimble-and-pea tricks with language it is time to be blunt about racism.

They keep insisting it’s not racist to insert a provision into our constitution that provides both ‘recognition’ and ‘consultation’ (Prime Minister Albanese’s words) to some Australians based on their race (their ‘descent’), and denies similar ‘recognition’ and ‘consultation’ to other citizens on the basis that they are descended from the wrong sort of people.

And why is this not racist? Because they are the good guys, and they oppose racism. They aim, they tell us, at ending systemic racism in Australia. Racism is the black cloud hanging over this nation, and it must be driven away. That’s their mantra.

Since they keep telling us it’s racism they oppose, let’s take them at their word. Let’s take them seriously, and offer them an end to all possibility of racism under the federal government.

How would the Voice cheer squad cope if we proposed a referendum to insert into the Australian constitution a blanket ban on racism? How could they possibly object to that? Especially as the anthem they constantly sing is about ‘bringing us all together’ and ‘uniting Australians’. What could be more uniting than outlawing racism?

Section 51 (xxvi) of the constitution currently allows the Commonwealth to make laws concerning the people of any race for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws. So, let’s replace those words with: ‘The Commonwealth shall make no laws with respect to the race of persons, and it shall be illegal to specify race in any laws or regulations.’

That’s a fairly comprehensive rejection of racism, isn’t it?

Isn’t that what they say they want? An end to all racism in Australia?

Whenever we complain that inserting the Indigenous Voice into the constitution will make the constitution racist they claim it already is – and point to Section 51 (xxvi). Well, if that’s the problem, then that’s the bit that should be changed.

We are often told that law has an ‘educative effect’. When a law is changed it signals to the population that this value (embodied in the law, whatever it may be) matters to our society. So, if racism is the problem, let’s embody a ban on racism in our constitution and send the most powerful signal possible to all Australians that racism is totally unacceptable.

Recently the ACT Human Rights Commission released the results of a survey of more than 2,000 young people (aged up to 24) on the subject of racism. The report says that racism and discrimination are rife. Well, let’s use the ‘educative power’ of a small but significant change to our constitution to say that racism does not belong in Australia.

Of course, a constitutional rejection of racism would change the way the Commonwealth government operates.

For instance, the National Indigenous Australians Agency would have to become the National Isolated Australians Agency. It would have to care for people on the basis of need not race. It would provide welfare and life improvement for people in remote and isolated Australia on the basis of their need, not their race.

And Native Land Councils around Australia would have to become Community Land Councils – representing everyone who lives on their land regardless of race.

In a number of policy areas this change to the constitution to comprehensively banish racism may mean a bit of shake-up.

But such a constitutional change would embody the opposition to racism spelled out by Martin Luther King in his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech on 28 August, 1963 in Washington DC. The proposed amendment to the Australian constitution would capture Dr King’s famous vision: ‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.’

The change to Section 51 (xxxvi) would make it impossible for the Commonwealth to ever judge anyone ‘by the colour of their skin’. That would bring a steel shutter down on racism once and for all.

The key to getting a majority of states and a majority of citizens to vote in favour of outlawing racism in the constitution would be to make the underlying principle clear – namely, that race does not matter.

This may make the wildly woke purveyors of identity politics curl up in the foetal position and start sucking their thumbs. To them race is all-important. They claim you are defined by your race. How you feel, how you are treated, how you are regarded, is all based on your race. It is, they say, your key defining characteristic.

However, those of us who stand with Martin Luther King get his message – race does not matter. The ‘content of your character’ matters, not ‘the colour of your skin’.

The Australian constitution needs to be changed to reflect how trivial and unimportant race is.

To biologists your race is almost invisible. Science tells us that genetic differences between races occupy a mere seven per cent of human DNA. In other words, people of different races share 93 per cent of their humanity.

The illusion that race matters is the result of an unfortunate coincidence – the skin is the part of the body that is seen by other people. So, the mistake made by racism is to regard skin colour as a central, defining characteristic of a human being. The 7 per cent of difference DNA makes between races is entirely superficial. It changes nothing important. Race is literally skin-deep.

Racism ignores the 93 per cent of shared humanity. The X-ray vision of the molecular geneticist reveals the unity of our species. Race does not matter.

The science of genetics says race is unimportant. Logic and common sense say race is unimportant. So, let’s embody that in the Australian constitution by changing the wording of Section 51 (xxvi) outlawing racism completely and forever.

That will really bring Australians together!