ABC news article: Voice to Parliament referendum pamphlets for Yes and No camps published by AEC

On the Australian Electoral Commission's website:

• The case for voting Yes

• The case for voting No

The Sydney Morning Herald / The Age newspapers have provided annotated versions of each pamphlet:

• The Yes pamphlet annotated: 14 things you should know

• 17 things you need to know about the No pamphlet

As has been observed in those annotation pages, there is no legal requirement for either of these pamphlets to be truthful or factual, and there is no obligation for the AEC to fact-check them (in fact, the AEC is legally restrained from commenting on those pamphlets in any way - its role is restricted to disseminating those pamphlets, because it must stay neutral).

I've been pleased recently to start hearing and seeing another variation on the "LGBT" initialism here in Australia: LGBTQIASB+

• Lesbian

• Gay

• Bisexual

• Transgender

• Queer

• Intersex

• Asexual

• Sistergirl

• Brotherboy

The latter two terms, "sistergirl" and "brotherboy", are Aboriginal Australian words for people who are gender non-conforming. This includes transgender people as we westerners understand "transgender", but the terms are more inclusive than that. This article explains it better than I possibly could.

The reason I'm so pleased to see this new variation on the LGBT initialism is because the only other variation which includes First Peoples I've seen is the American one that uses "2S" for these (from "two-spirit"). The first time I saw that (and every other time, to be honest), I felt this was highly parochial and exclusive - which is the opposite of what the initialism should be. So now I'm glad there's a Down Under version, which includes the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Are there any other local variations like this?

250 years ago, Captain James Cook and his ship the HMS Endeavour landed at Kamay (Botany Bay) on the eastern coast of Australia. He was in the middle of a months-long exploration of the eastern coast. His crew first spotted the Australian mainland on 11th April 1770, and they left Australian waters after taking possession of the continent in the name of King George III on 22nd August.

This was not the first visitation of Australia by Europeans. That honour goes to Dutch sailor Willem Janszoon in his ship the Duyfken in 1606. Dutch & Portuguese sailors & traders continued to visit the north and west coasts for the next couple of centuries. They called the continent "New Holland".

But Cook represented the first European power to assume possession of the continent. 18 years later, the English sent their First Fleet of convict ships to the land of New South Wales.

250 years since Captain Cook arrived in Australia, his legacy remains fraught

What Australians often get wrong about our most (in)famous explorer, Captain Cook

For Indigenous people, Cook's voyage of 'discovery' was a ghostly visitation

Here's a secondary news article (web-based): 'Free the flag': Aboriginal businesses told not to use Aboriginal flag over copyright

Here's the original news article (it's a PDF document from this website): ‘Our’ flag raises questions

This week, two governments in Australia have taken steps towards negotiating treaties with the native Aboriginal people:

• Victorian Parliament votes on law to negotiate Australia's first Aboriginal treaty

• Indigenous treaty a step closer after Northern Territory government makes historic pledge

Meanwhile, one government says no:

• South Australia government decides not to go ahead with Aboriginal treaties

It's interesting that the two governments moving forwards are Labor Party governments, while the one that's stopping the process is a newly elected Liberal Party government. It's hard not to draw the conclusion that this is a politically partisan issue.