As this magazine has pointed out, and not always tongue-in-cheek, wait long enough and today’s vehemently denounced conspiracy theory is tomorrow’s undisputed truth. This process reached epic proportions throughout and following the Covid years. Reading back-copies of The Spectator Australia from 2020 to 2022 is like an out-of-body experience as you stumble from one article to another that more or less accurately predicts what is now, belatedly, admitted to be the truth.

Foolishly, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese suggested a ‘conspiracy theory’ in parliament this week pertaining to his precious Voice. Or more particularly, pertaining to the stunning revelations by host Peta Credlin on Sky News Australia that rather than being a benign-looking one-page document covered in pretty patterns and signatures, the much-vaunted ‘symbolic’ Uluru Statement from the Heart actually runs to some 26 pages of detailed planning for a major restructure of this nation’s polity to bring about a self-governing Aboriginal nation. Moreover, this has to all intents and purposes been hidden from the public’s gaze until recently revealed under a freedom of information request. Why is this additional detail important? Because the Prime Minister has on some 30-plus occasions committed to implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart ‘in full’. Therefore the public should have been shown the Uluru Statement ‘in full’.

Instead, the PM sought to belittle Ms Credlin’s revelations as conspiracy theory.

‘Nothing exposes the falseness of the arguments being put by the No campaign than this conspiracy theory….’ Mr Albanese said, before going for the gag. ‘I mean, what role did Marcia Langton play in the faking of the moon landing? There’s a whole lot of projection going on here, Mr Speaker, more projection than a film festival.’ And again: ‘That is a conspiracy in search of a theory… like the QAnon theories, we have all sorts of conspiracy stuff out there, but this is a ripper.’

Meanwhile, over at Sky News itself, host Chris Kenny, rather than congratulating his colleague Ms Credlin on a newsworthy story, opted to join in the prime ministerial denials. ‘I need to correct this furphy that the Uluru Statement is actually 26 pages long… it is simply not true,’ insisted an irate Mr Kenny, a zealous advocate for the Yes campaign. A furphy, of course, is Aussie slang for a ‘false rumour’, or ‘scuttlebutt’.

Within 24 hours Ms Credlin substantiated her claims. The full Uluru Statement from the Heart is 26 pages long and can be found as ‘Document 14’ on the NIAA website, she said, citing Megan Davis, one of the statement’s architects, who repeatedly insisted in public that the statement isn’t just one page but is ‘lengthy… around 18 to 20 pages’, as well as the government’s FOI lawyers who confirmed that Document 14 is the full Uluru Statement from the Heart. Presumably at the insistence of Labor heavies, certain individuals are now frantically back-tracking.

Has the Yes campaign been caught faking its own moon landing, at the behest of the Prime Minister? Have those being accused of peddling a ‘conspiracy theory’ in fact simply exposed a hidden truth?

The idea that the extra 25 pages are simply irrelevant bureaucratic note-taking is a nonsense, given that for months No campaigners have been demanding detail on many issues surrounding the functioning and purpose of the Voice and the literal relationship between ‘voice’, ‘treaty’, ‘makaratta’, ‘truth-telling’ (see Kel Richards revelatory piece in this week’s issue) and so on. Repeatedly the answer to these questions has been, ‘no one knows, we’ll work that out later’. Yet the answers to those questions are in black and white in Document 14, detailing the mechanisms and intentions of the framers of the Uluru Statement, of which the Voice is the all-important first step and legal mechanism to achieving everything else. Such as:

‘A constitutionally entrenched Voice to Parliament was… considered as a way by which the right to self-determination could be achieved.’

‘There was a concern that the proposed body would have insufficient power if its constitutional function was “advisory” only….’

‘Any Voice to Parliament should be designed so that it could support and promote a treaty-making process.’

‘A treaty could include a proper say in decision-making, the establishment of a truth commission, reparations, a financial settlement (such as seeking a percentage of GDP), the resolution of land, water and resources issues, recognition of authority and customary law, and determination, autonomy and self-government.’

‘The true history of colonisation must be told: the genocides, the massacres, the wars and the ongoing injustices and discrimination… [and] how First Nations Peoples have contributed to protecting and building this country.’

‘Treaty would be the vehicle to achieve self-determination, autonomy and self-government.’

‘…creation of a “Black Parliament”.’

On p. 26, ‘Road Map 3’ sees the Voice literally turn into a self-governing First Nation within its own borders. So is the Voice actually the precursor to a massive transfer of sovereignty, wealth and power?

Naah. That’s just a conspiracy theory.