As usual, it takes John Howard to cut to the chase with one pithy comment, in this instance on the vexed topic of the referendum later this year for an indigenous Voice to parliament: ‘Why are we doing this to ourselves?’ The comment by our most successful prime minister, made to journalist Janet Albrechtsen, was probably uttered more in frustration than in anger, but at its heart lies a summation of the true tragedy of this entire leftist campaign.