The news this morning (Sept 3) that John Farnham has loaned his anthematic You’re the Voice to the Yes23 campaign prompted an immediate response from reader Tati Sofaris, who read and added his italicised thoughts to the lyrics:
We have the chance to turn the pages over
How many pages? One page or 22?
We can write what we want to write
‘No’ for preference
We gotta make ends meet, before we get much olderWhat $39 billion per year isn’t enough?
We’re all someone’s daughterWe’re all someone’s son
Let’s not talk about Bruce Pascoe’s DNA
How long can we look at each other Down the barrel of a gun?Typo! Should be ‘over a barrel of dumb’
You’re the voice, try and understand it
More information would help
Make a noise and make it clear
Oh, whoaOh woe, indeed
We’re not gonna sit in silenceExcept if we work for Qantas
We’re not gonna live with fearExcept late at night in Alice Springs
This time, we know we all can stand together
But do we all want to?
With the power to be powerful
Not to mention ‘feared and revered‘ Believing we can make it better
How? Please explain
You’re the voice, try and understand it
Especially you ‘racists’ and ‘right-wing swine‘
Thanks Tati for saying some things that needed to be said.
Another thing is that we are already one people under our Constitution.
We are all citizens of Australia. We are Australians. We have equal rights.
And one vote for each of us.