Voice to parliament referendum fails in defeat that Indigenous advocates will see as a blow to progress towards reconciliation

Australians have resoundingly rejected a proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in its constitution and establish a body to advise parliament on Indigenous issues.

Saturday’s voice to parliament referendum failed, with the defeat clear shortly after polls closed.

  • WhirlybirdEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    The liberals would have dismanted the constitutionally protected voice anyway, because the only thing that was protected is that it has to exist. No mention of the makeup of it, how people would be chosen, or even that the people on it need to be indigenous. The LNP get power and it wouldn’t be unexpected to see peter dutton as the sole member of the Voice advisory panel.

    • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      12·
      1 year ago

      I have no doubt that they would have stacked it. All governments try and do that, it’s not always malicious.

      A yes vote would have indicated that the people feel quite strongly about it working though, and made it more heavily scrutinised when fiddled with.

      “The constitutional voice” has a lot more gravity in a headline than “the indigenous advisory committee” or whatever, and news orgs are in the business of headlines.

      Lets not sugar coat it, it’s a black day on our nation’s history.

      • WhirlybirdEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Lets not sugar coat it, it’s a black day on our nation’s history.

        It’s really not. We voted against something that we thought was a shit idea. If it was just about recognizing indigenous people as the original owners of the land etc it would have passed with flying colours. The government tried to bundle it with a vague and shitty proposal though, and in the process lost the recognition.