Two years on from the defeat of the divisive Voice to Parliament, it remains one of the great victories of democracy in Australian history.

Saying No to the Voice was not a rejection of Indigenous Australians, nor a rejection of helping Indigenous Aussies get on their feet as fully flourishing members of Australian society.

It was a rejection of a top-down push from activists and elites to insert the progressive preoccupation with racial grievance into our constitution.

It was the people, the Australian people, saying to these academics and activists and media personalities; No, this country is ours and not yours, and we are going to insist on having the country we want.

Referendum hero Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price wrote eloquently in The Australian some reflections on the two year anniversary, closing with a call to arms:

The 2nd anniversary of the voice referendum is a time to speak up with courage and conviction if we are to address Indigenous disadvantage.

It’s also a time to reinforce our rejection of division based on race. The path ahead must be one of unity where we celebrate the achievement of modern Australia which exists thanks to our Indigenous heritage, British inheritance and migrant contributions. And may we always live by Prime Minister Bob Hawke’s words, “In Australia, there is no hierarchy of descent; there must be no privilege of origin.”

Nampijinpa Price is right that we must celebrate what makes Australia a great country, and we must defend those things that make it so as well.

At ADVANCE, after two years on we’d also like to add to Price’s call to arms with a call of our own.

A call to remember.

The massive con the Yes campaign was trying to pull was to make you forget.

To make you forget all the things they said about reparations, about building “black power”, about making the Voice a powerful body that would punish politicians.

They wanted you to isolate this one proposal, to put the Voice in the constitution, from all the rhetoric about stolen land, sovereignty never ceded, always was, always will be.

They want to abolish Australia Day, rage against “colonialism”, make primary school kids say sorry for past wrongs, deliver guilt-trip sermons at major sporting events, and then insist you forget all of that when they put forward the Voice.

But Australians saw through the cover up. They remembered what these same people had all said and advocated for in the past and voted accordingly.

In all the eulogies written for the referendum by Yes campaigners and supporters, not once have any of them ever had the courage to say, “yes, we did want to do the things on the activist checklist, of course we did, and we still do.”

Because they want you to forget all of this happened so they can try again.

But you must remember.

Because even now, the elites and activists continue to try to make you forget all of the elements of their agenda.

They want you to forget the reality of cheap reliable energy and the promises of lower energy prices as they push Net Zero.

They want you to forget a more cohesive Australia and the possibility of housing for young Aussies as they open the doors to mass migration.

They want you to forget an Australia that built things as they fly overseas to beg foreign companies to keep our economy afloat.

Most important of all, they want you to forget that none of this is inevitable. Policy choices have been made to bring us to this point. 

Those choices can be unmade.

The Voice showed that you, the Australian people, can say No to the elites and activists and demand the Australia you want.

Two years on, it’s time to remember that you can do it again.