Australian vote to give Indigenous peoples a voice to parliament fails
- 6 months ago
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News Article :-
Australians overwhelmingly voted against a constitutional amendment on Saturday that would have recognized the country’s Indigenous peoples and provided them with an advisory body, or “Voice,” to Parliament.
The heavy defeat had been predicted by polls but nonetheless came as a crushing blow for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, who saw the referendum as an opportunity for Australia to turn the page on its colonial and racist past.
The Voice, deliberately drafted as a “modest proposal,” would have advised Parliament on issues relating to Indigenous peoples, such as housing, health care and employment, but would not have been binding.
Instead, the opposition appeared to have successfully stirred fears over the proposal’s consequences with the slogan “If you don’t know, vote no” and claims that it was divisive, as well as targeted social media posts that were sometimes misleading or false.
The defeat was also a setback for the center-left Labor government and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who made the referendum a priority after winning office last year.
“When you do the hard things, when you aim high, sometimes you fall short,” Albanese said in a somber concession speech. He suggested misinformation had played a role in the result and vowed to continue efforts to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians.
“We must take our country beyond this debate without forgetting why we had it in the first place,” he said. “Because too often in the life of our nation and in the political conversation, the disadvantage confronting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has been relegated to the margins.”
Referendums are difficult to pass Down Under. They require a so-called “double majority” — a majority of the nationwide vote and a majority within at least four of Australia’s six states.
That result was out of reach within 90 minutes of the first polls closing, as local media quickly called three states as Nos. The Yes campaign appeared likely to lose the other three as well.
Initially, polls showed roughly two-thirds of Australians supported the idea of an Indigenous “Voice to Parliament.” But after a poor performance in the 2022 election, leaders of the conservative coalition saw an opportunity to dent Albanese’s popularity and regain momentum, according to analysts.
“It was really done and dusted from that point,” said Paul Williams, a political scientist at Griffith University in Brisbane, adding that a tough economic climate didn’t help.
Indigenous people have lived in Australia for around 65,000 years but suffered greatly with the arrival of the British in 1788.The Indigenous population plummeted under colonial rule due to imported diseases and massacres committed by White settlers. From the mid-1800s to the 1970s, federal and state governments systematically removed Indigenous children from their families to assimilate them.
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News Article :-
Australians overwhelmingly voted against a constitutional amendment on Saturday that would have recognized the country’s Indigenous peoples and provided them with an advisory body, or “Voice,” to Parliament.
The heavy defeat had been predicted by polls but nonetheless came as a crushing blow for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, who saw the referendum as an opportunity for Australia to turn the page on its colonial and racist past.
The Voice, deliberately drafted as a “modest proposal,” would have advised Parliament on issues relating to Indigenous peoples, such as housing, health care and employment, but would not have been binding.
Instead, the opposition appeared to have successfully stirred fears over the proposal’s consequences with the slogan “If you don’t know, vote no” and claims that it was divisive, as well as targeted social media posts that were sometimes misleading or false.
The defeat was also a setback for the center-left Labor government and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who made the referendum a priority after winning office last year.
“When you do the hard things, when you aim high, sometimes you fall short,” Albanese said in a somber concession speech. He suggested misinformation had played a role in the result and vowed to continue efforts to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians.
“We must take our country beyond this debate without forgetting why we had it in the first place,” he said. “Because too often in the life of our nation and in the political conversation, the disadvantage confronting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has been relegated to the margins.”
Referendums are difficult to pass Down Under. They require a so-called “double majority” — a majority of the nationwide vote and a majority within at least four of Australia’s six states.
That result was out of reach within 90 minutes of the first polls closing, as local media quickly called three states as Nos. The Yes campaign appeared likely to lose the other three as well.
Initially, polls showed roughly two-thirds of Australians supported the idea of an Indigenous “Voice to Parliament.” But after a poor performance in the 2022 election, leaders of the conservative coalition saw an opportunity to dent Albanese’s popularity and regain momentum, according to analysts.
“It was really done and dusted from that point,” said Paul Williams, a political scientist at Griffith University in Brisbane, adding that a tough economic climate didn’t help.
Indigenous people have lived in Australia for around 65,000 years but suffered greatly with the arrival of the British in 1788.The Indigenous population plummeted under colonial rule due to imported diseases and massacres committed by White settlers. From the mid-1800s to the 1970s, federal and state governments systematically removed Indigenous children from their families to assimilate them.
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