In the wake of the delivery of a resounding no to this proposed constitutional change, this article offers a very measured analysis of the problems with the Voice proposal and rejects the simplistic idea that a “no” is simply due to Australians being racist. This article is from before the referendum.
Sometimes I wonder to myself who is more racist, Australia or Canada? It just seems like a race to the bottom.
They seem to be about the same level. NZ recently elected a right wing party too lol
Canada will just have to dredge up another nazi nosferatu to guarantee victory
Did you read the article? I don’t think its the correct conclusion to draw that people voted no because of racism. At the start of the year there was around 70% in favour of the voice on polls. The author makes the point, people haven’t suddenly become racist in this time. Certainly a proportion of people voted no because they’re racist but its not the whole story. Outer suburban areas in major cities which are poor and very multicultural all voted no quite resoundingly, while inner city liberal areas were the only areas that voted yes.
How about you also read the article and understand the historical context:
The past two First Nations advisory organizations have been shut down by the conservative parties each time they won government. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) shut down in 2005. National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples shut down in 2019. These advisory bodies already existed before.Having won the federal election, Labor knew if they didn’t put a change IN THE CONSTITUTION, as soon as they lost an election then all the years of work they might put into funding and creating another body would get thrown in the garbage by the FUCKING SCUMBAG parties.
So the referendum was about giving Aboriginal leaders back what they PREVIOUSLY HAD in a permanent way RATHER than creating another advisory body and then taking it away with the next change in government under the DOGSHIT two party system in Australia. But Australians are too fucking conveniently ignorant to remember the past. Hence the no vote.
So for the article to talk about boycotting the referendum when the federal government has previously abolished the parliamentary Aboriginal advisory bodies … Let’s just say it’s rage inducing.
Given very similar advisory bodies have existed before, do you think the voice would have been successful in improving material conditions for Aboriginal people? For what its worth I voted yes. I was just cynical about the proposed change actually amounting to anything.
The point was to stop the bullshit of dismantling those similar national Aboriginal orgs each time conservatives wanted to crush them to score a political point. Given their track record of ABOLISHING these bodies, the referendum would have protected them which would already be a material improvement.
That would have been the change. That’s progress. But rather than making them permanent, the No vote has just doomed Australia to the endless cycle of creating an org then getting rid of it each time we switch governments.
Australia already attempts to deliver policies and services for Aborigines but the recent approach has been to involve them in the design and delivery to give better results. That is why these bodies need to exist.
Theres no political will to implement any change that will materially benefit Indigenous people. Liberal politics at its core, this proposal was almost entirely symbolic. Now arguably that is still important, which is part of the reason I still voted yes. But I don’t think this is necessarily such a great loss for progressive politics. As time has gone on I have much more sympathy for progressive No arguments of Lidia Thorpe and co. You can believe that we have this result because 70% of the Australian electorate are racist deplorables beyond salvation but I think that’s not a useful learning from this outcome and it doesn’t help progressive politics at all going forward to operate with that assumption.
We already see at the state level that bodies like this do more than symbolism:
In this article https://theconversation.com/some-states-already-have-indigenous-advisory-bodies-what-are-they-and-how-would-the-voice-be-different-214726, they mention an ACT community housing project for older indigenous Australians was provided in cooperation with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body.
The TSRA manage the fisheries in Torres Strait and many other projects.
On the national level previously ATSIC provided funds for grants and loans and even provided funds for litigating native title claims.
Previous bodies were not symbolic. Yet the No campaign will ALWAYS be trying to trivialize anything an indigenous body could contribute. We know exactly how these pieces of shit operate.
The electorate is being characterized as racist deplorables?
Yet the outcome here is obviously going to result in taking something away from a racial minority (i.e. see the previous indigenous advisory bodies and safely assume the next national body formed without constitutional protection will ultimately be removed again by a conservative election win). That is simply a racist result. Analyzing the material conditions and history, we can make the conclusion without obsessing over the motivations of individual voters.Yet the proposed voice had none of the powers which those bodies do. This guy actually discusses this point in this interview and makes arguments much better than I can. https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=G0kFfqb-63s
Prime minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor government and conservative Aboriginals, such as Noel Pearson, have been bending over backwards to assure the electorate that the Voice will have no powers: it will not lead to reparations for stolen lands and will only have an advisory role (one that can be ignored).
Mission accomplished. Now face the wall
From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Australian_Indigenous_Voice_referendum#Advertising_and_media :
Mass media in Australia are highly concentrated, with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Australia dominating the landscape, owning over two-thirds of leading newspapers along with most online news websites ; three News Corp outlets occupy the top three positions in the nation, based on popularity and viewership.
The majority of News Corp’s content was commentary, not reporting, so when the various articles and videos were examined together, around 70% of the coverage favoured “No” arguments.
That graph is depressing.
And weird.
People are saying that referendums represent the will of the people, as if it was unmoving. How many people would have changed their minds after the u.s.s.r. dissolution of 1991 for example ?
Also, i’ve looked at the opinion surveys for presidential elections of the last decades and it always moved a lot in the last weeks, a proof that they’re consciously manipulative/lying i.m.h.o.
Fascists gonna fash.
I implore you to read the article. Racism is a massive issue in Australia but I really think that is not the correct take from this result.
There is no real attempt to win the mass of the population to the idea that this will be of mutual benefit through shared justice - because in reality, no justice can be delivered through the Voice
classic reform or revolution moment. not throwing in behind this has handed the libs a thing to point to “reconciliation has been rejected by democracy”, but if it had passed they’d have their little rubber-stamp council to endorse any kind of monstrous policies in future. what marvelous choices bourgeois democracy delivers
Western world going more mask off than usual
