There is a widespread view that if this year’s referendum were stripped back to the specific recognition of the Aboriginal people in the constitution, it would be home and hosed. Instead, the referendum uses recognition to camouflage a machine which, we are warned on good authority, will divide the nation and make it ungovernable, blocking a reform government trying to correct the endless problems today’s politicians insist on creating or making worse.

Tony Abbott proposes that recognition be achieved in a way both succinct and lyrical, respecting all Australians and not creating the clear danger the majority now fear this Canberra Voice will.

Abbott is one of the few in politics who is genuinely interested in improving the lot of the Aboriginal people in the remote communities.

He showed this by his going regularly to work and live in the Outback, even when Prime Minister – so different from the increasingly irritating thespian measures the ruling class flaunt to demonstrate their moral superiority.

Contrast Abbott with Anthony Albanese, who, when forced by media exposure to go in his luxury jet for a few hours to an Alice Springs with the streets cleared of those who might detract from the right photo opportunities, rushed back to join the world’s elites for days at the Australian Open where, incidentally, the best singles tickets are reportedly priced at $27,500.

Abbott is a man of principle, committed to the cause of liberal democracy. Crucial in these days of the notorious long march through the institutions, he has always been totally untainted by Marxist communism. I suspect that he realises that, once in place, there can be no doubt that the new communists will march through the Voice even more quickly than they have through education departments.

Apart from being a fighter, as both lifesaver and firefighter a contributor to those in need and danger and a superb rank-and-file communicator, Abbott has a distinct literary bent, an ability rare among today’s generation of mainstream politicians.

As he explains on ADH TV, he proposes that recognition be effected by amending the preamble to the Constitution Act. Passed at Westminster, this was not, as Paul Keating actually claimed, imposed by the Foreign Office. Drafted in Australia and approved by Australians, the British opposed neither it nor federation. Indeed, when they proposed federation to the colonies, which they had made self-governing, they were initially denounced by the local politicians.

Amending the preamble will offend purists, who invite comparison with the inevitable outrage which would greet proposals to amend the preamble to, say, the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights or the American Declaration of Independence. But such views (which I share) cannot, of course, stand in the way of the wishes of a nation. Incidentally, if the Abbott amendment passes, on my calculations, it will be Australia’s first successful repeat referendum.

That a preamble including such a recognition was rejected by the nation overwhelmingly 24 years ago will not be a barrier. Voters were clearly distracted by the simultaneous republic referendum. Less acceptable is that this amendment will not give priority recognition, as John Howard did, to those who ‘defended our country and our liberty in time of war’. Surely, they should rank before people recognised only because of the antiquity of their race.

Nor does it seem to matter that, as former soldier Peter O’Brien explains on ADH TV, recognition will never satisfy Voice proponents. In any event, the amended Preamble to the Constitution Act could, with some necessary licence read:

‘Whereas the people of the several states, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite, under the Crown and under this Constitution, in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth with an indigenous heritage, a British foundation and an immigrant character….’

Tony Abbott’s role in providing an answer to the Voice, one which clearly enjoys such wide support, confirms the magnitude of the loss he is from parliament. The recent suggestion by the editor of this magazine Rowan Dean on his Outsiders show on Sky News Australia that Scott Morrisson resign, and the Liberals preselect Tony Abbott to replace him, therefore must have considerable merit.

Since the Turnbull coup, engineered, it should not be forgotten, by the nation’s mainstream media concocting the world’s only beat-up over one of Prince Philip’s many well-deserved knighthoods, Australia has suffered from extremely poor to disastrous political leadership, especially during Covid.

In his ADH TV interview, Abbott explains exactly how he would have handled Covid, a course of action entirely consistent with the lauded plan he drew precisely for this eventuality when Minister for Health.

We should recall that in 2015, the mainstream media had apparently assumed that because Turnbull was more popular among them and other elites, this applied in the country. They were wrong. In the almost immediately following North Sydney by-election,where Turnbull was the effective face to an unknown candidate, the anti-Liberal swing was a spectacular 13 per cent. In terms of good government, it has been downhill since then.

Not satisfied, the mainstream media was again to play a significant role in Abbott’s 2019 removal from parliament. There was an unprecedented interruption of Sunday morning TV to go to Sydney’s Domain for the launch of a totally unknown independent’s campaign. The mainstream media boost thoughout this unknown’s campaign was obvious.

The result was no doubt affected by the way the Hawke government had so obviously opened up the electoral system to increased fraud in selected seats. By requiring no ID, almost alone in the OECD, the Australian electoral system is akin to taking off the bars from ground-level terrace house windows in modern inner-city Sydney. Just as this would be a warm welcome to thieves, the Australian electoral system offers a warm welcome to fraud. Fortunately, as the celebrated psephologist Malcolm Mackerras correctly advised, because of its strength, it wasn’t going to swing the result in the republic referendum.

Meanwhile, the Voice referendum remains as doomed as it always was.