This chapter contextualises the 2023 referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in relation to what we describe as the dialectics of settler nationalism in so-called Australia. The first two sections outline what we see as a dynamic relationship of settler-colonial domination, in which discursive representations of ‘Australia’ oscillate between conservative proclamations that the nation is already unified, and progressive insistence that national unification is almost ready to be achieved. We liken the operation of these competing settler nationalisms to a pair of scissors: the two blades seemingly opposed, but working in tandem against the Indigenous sovereignties they similarly seek to sever. In the context of the Voice debate, the settler-colonial scissors pitted repressive silencing against what we define, borrowing from Patrick Wolfe, as repressive loquacity. Developing our interpretative approach, the chapter’s following sections map the model of settler–Indigenous relations envisioned by the Voice against two long-lasting traditions of colonial governance: direct and indirect rule. This framing enables an original interpretation of the development of settler-colonial policy settings in Australia, and a forecast: the decades-long shift away from settler fantasies of Australia as a terra nullius and visions of an unproblematically unified national body politic is likely to continue. The chapter concludes with our reflections on where the future trajectory of these ostensible oppositions might ultimately lead.