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.

    • 38fhh2f8th5819c7@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      We just proved 60% of the country are dumbass racist hicks, we don’t need dumbass racist hicks armed with assault rifles. It’s bad enough here with the spiders and snakes.

      As for the no voting, the US could certainly take a leaf from our book. The republicunts would evaporate overnight if you had mandatory voting with ranked choice and meaningful minor parties.

  • Sparking@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    A sad day for Australia. It was cool to see a lot if Australian celebrities come out in support of a yes vote.

  • fruitleatherpostcard@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    How grim.

    This is a victory for racists, and bad-faith actors, some some of which have received lots of money from China and Russia to help destabilise another Western country.

    • maegul@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      Yea I wouldn’t go around underestimating Australia’s ability to fuck up its indigenous people without any conspiratorial help like that.

    • Dojan@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Honestly don’t know if that latter bit is true. We manage to be absolutely atrocious to the indigenous population without third parties meddling. I don’t think there’s a single native population that hasn’t been mistreated; had their culture and names taken away, sent for reeducation, eugenics, and so on, so forth.

      • fruitleatherpostcard@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        I agree but at the same time in this modern age of ‘social media’ I am certain that the people who said openly that they wanted to take down The West, are doing so.

      • lulztard@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        That’s what I as an outside person have read for like a decade. Australia is usually looking good because it’s not 'murica, kind of like Canada, but bloody hell don’t look too close.

        • Dojan@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Not just them. The Sami people of Scandinavia were subjects of eugenic experimentation during the early-mid 1900s. The Ainu people of Russia/Japan had their names and culture stripped, and were forced to marry Japanese, and live as Japanese citizens. Many branches of that culture is dead.

          There’s the Icelandic people who fairly recently were subjected to forced sterilisation.

          Can I believe that third parties fuel this kind of thing to wreak havoc? Absolutely. But I can also believe that we’re fully capable of doing this ourselves. Mankind is hateful.

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Sudan Ethiopia and Thailand, IIRC. There’s one African nation, and one SEA nation that never got colonized.

        Edit: I didn’t remember correctly

    • YⓄ乙 @aussie.zone
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      9 months ago

      Lol there’s no China and Russia. Baby boomers mostly britishers and racist as fuck in australia…

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


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

    The defeat will be seen by Indigenous advocates as a blow to what has been a hard fought struggle to progress reconciliation and recognition in modern Australia, with First Nations people continuing to suffer discrimination, poorer health and economic outcomes.

    Nationwide support for the voice was hovering at about 40% in the week before the vote, with coverage of the campaign being overshadowed by the outbreak of war in the Middle East in the crucial final days.

    The failure of Australia’s previous referendum in 1999 – to become a republic and acknowledge Indigenous ownership – was seen to have failed because it put forward a specific model to voters.

    It weathered accusations that it championed the voice push while failing to deliver tangible improvements for citizens facing cost of living pressures and a housing crisis hurt the yes side.

    Opposition also emerged from the far left of progressive politics and a minority of grassroots Indigenous activists, who rejected the voice while calling for more significant reconciliation measures, including a treaty with Aboriginal Australians.


    The original article contains 724 words, the summary contains 196 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • Deceptichum@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      I’m not sorry. I did all I could do.

      I don’t take responsibility for those fuckers who voted no.

    • maegul@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      I personally didn’t pay close attention to the campaigns, and think it pretty obvious Australia has a fair way to go on indigenous issues, but my impression is also that the Yes campaign was poorly executed and thought through, failing, in part, to recognise how much of an uphill climb it was going to be and how easy the No campaign was going to be. For instance, while reading the ballot, I was taken aback by how vague and confusing the proposal was, despite having read it before.

      Otherwise, I’m hoping there’s a silver lining in the result where it will prompt an ongoing conversation about what actually happened and get the country closer to getting better at this.

      • Lintson@aussie.zone
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        9 months ago

        Even 10 years ago the topic of this referendum would have been political suicide. Remember Rudd got crucified for apologising. It’s actually pretty positive that this referendum, as poorly executed as it was, actually happened.

      • DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de
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        9 months ago

        I agree that Labor very badly misread the room. I’m a bit grumpy about it TBH.

        I don’t think Australia is really ready for a meaningful conversation about issues relating to first Australians - hell, I’m not if I’m really honest.

      • Mossy Feathers (They/Them)@pawb.social
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        9 months ago

        Iirc it was a very popular idea when it was first proposed, but a bunch of right-wingers spent a shitton of money spreading misinformation which swung it towards being unpopular.

        Once again, the right-wing is responsible for being garbage people.

      • zik@zorg.social
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        9 months ago

        There was a massive, heavily funded FUD campaign by the “no” proponents. Sadly, it was very effective.

        • Selmafudd@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Yeah as soon as I heard the “if you don’t know vote no” slogan I knew it was already over… this one line just forgives people for being racist.

          I’m not saying every No vote was racist just that many would have been and this made it so fucking easy for them to feel no guilt.

  • Strayce@lemmy.sdf.org
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    9 months ago

    Yeah this fucking sucks. I have to admit I was expecting Yes to win by a landslide, but I guess I give people too much credit.

    • Wanderer@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      It was a vote on whether one specific group of people based on race should have a say in parliament that no other race would have.

      A lot of people in Australia seen that as racist and a way to divide the population.

      Australians voted to remain in a system where everyone has an equal vote and voice in parliament.

      The headline is very obviously misleading and not what people who voted no actually thought.

      It’s important to note a lot of Aboriginals voted no and we’re campaigning for no. As such the left/internet whoever have jumped on the bandwagon about something they don’t understand.

      • dellish@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        You moron everyone else has a voice: it’s called the house of representatives. This was a body specifically to advise on indigenous issues, primarily because they live in remote communities and are therefore under-represented. A lot of money goes their way each year from the federal budget for purposes decided by old white men who live in cities, so why not have an indigenous body advise on where that money gets spent? Seems a lot less wasteful to me.

      • KeenFlame@feddit.nu
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        9 months ago

        Your home is now mine and I just had a vote if you should have any say at all in anything. It failed. So you have no say. Move out tomorrow. Equal rights to everyone!

    • Welt@lazysoci.al
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      9 months ago

      We really need to move on from this divisive attitude that people who don’t vote the way we do, especially with such a clear democratic majority, are necessarily ‘pieces of shit’. Life and politics are more complicated than that and more politically informed left-leaning voters should know better.

        • Welt@lazysoci.al
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          9 months ago

          Perfectly sane people do. I wouldn’t, but I don’t denigrate others’ sanity based on their political views. This is how you inflame and stifle debate, which only fuels ignorance.

    • fiat_lux@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      If I never heard again about an American being grateful/surprised/emotion that other humans are just like the humans from the US, I would begin to suspect that simulation theory is real and that there’s a huge glitch in the matrix. So, thanks for confirming this is all very real again, I guess.

    • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      American cultural hegemony tends to influence the world. If we go farther to the right, the world tends to follow. If American exported cultural propaganda didn’t work, the world would have condemned us years ago.

    • arin@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      We’re both born from Western colonialism and converted into capitalism

    • lauha@lemmy.one
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      9 months ago

      Finland also has quite a bad history with Sami people. Not quite as savage as US and Indians but still.

    • temp_acct_001@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      The article is deliberately misleading. The vote was to change the Australian Constitution to include a section giving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples a voice in parliament, which they already have through inner dialogue between their mobs and local government. How this constitutional change would look or be enacted was not known and very vague, with the crux being that it would still be government controlled, there was widespread animosity from First Nations people about it being another ‘white-man’s decision’, it would create division by being unequal when indigenous Australians are striving for equality.

      • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
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        9 months ago

        Yeah, nah. It was an oppurtunity for aboriginal and Torres straight islanders to be heard.

        There has been years of inner dialogue, and discussion with both parties. That led to the Uluṟu statement from the heart, which called for voice, treaty, truth.

        The first step was voice. It was not designed by white people but came from within the discussions between mobs.

        It was not divisive or destroying equality. As it stands, the constitution was changed to allow Lars specifically targeting ATSI people. This was a way to ensure they had a voice of reply. On all measures, they are faring worse than all other Australians.

        Many people voted no with good intent, or because they were unsure, but make no mistake, this was a step backwards for our country, a step backwards in race relations and a victory for racists.

        I’m not saying all those who voted no are racist. However, all the racists voted no. Sometimes you need to look at who’s on your side and why.

    • PersonalDevKit@aussie.zone
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      9 months ago

      Quite honestly it was a very confusing referendum. The question seemed simple on the surface but as soon as you ask questions very quickly it was hard to find answers. I think this confusion is the reason the majority voted no, they were scared to choose yes for something they didn’t understand. I tried to understand and still couldn’t find a straight answer of what this referendum was actually about.

      • CalamityJoe@aussie.zone
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        9 months ago

        The confusion definitely wasn’t helped by the large amounts of deliberate misinformation being put out there about the intention of the Voice, and requests for specificity.

        And then the apparently contradictory arguments (often by the very same person, within the same argument) that it was too much, and therefore privileged indigenous Australians over other Australians, and yet also not enough, and would therefore achieve nothing at all. Or that more information needed to be provided, or more often, that specifics needed to be pre-decided and included within the wording (overlooking that those specifics would then be enshrined in the constitution and largely unchangeable ever again)

        An argument to paralyse everyone along the decision spectrum who wasn’t already in the yes camp or no camps.

        To answer your question, the voice was essentially a yes or no to creating a constitutionally recognised body of indigenous Australians, that could lobby Government and Parliament of behalf of indigenous Australians on issues concerning indigenous Australians.

        To use an extended analogy:

        It would be similar to a board meeting of a large company asking their shareholders to agree to a proposal to create a position within the company of “Disabilities, Diversity, and Equity Officer”, and have that position enshrined within the company’s charter, to enable a dedicated representative to make representions on behalf of those that fall under those categories, as they all tend to be in minority groups whose needs or ideas don’t tend to be (on average) reflected or engaged with by existing company processes or mainstream society. And that the position be held by someone within one of those minority groups.

        Sure, an individual employee could take an issue to their supervisor (i.e. the Government/parliament), but that supervisor rightly has a need to observe the needs of the company (its voters) and the majority of employees (the average Australian), and the thought that a policy might not actually be effective for person Y would likely not even occur to the supervisor, as it seems to work for the majority of employees anyway, and they’re not raising any issues. The supervisor is unlikely to go proactivelly asking employee Y’s opinion on implementing X policy when they feel they already understand what employee a, b, c and d etc. want out of the policy.

        Even if employee Y brings up an issue directly with the supervisor, the supervisor is structurally unlikely to take it on board or give it much weight, as it’s a single employee vs the multitude of other employees who are fine with the policy as is. And listening involves extra work, let alone actually changing anything as a result.

        Having a specific Disability/Diversity/Equity officer not only allows employee Y an alternative chain of communication to feel like they’re being seen, and their concerns heard (which has important implications for their sense of self worth, participation, and mutual respect in the company), but the fact that it’s a specified company position within the company’s charter means the supervisor is much more likely to give that communication from that position much more weight, and consider it more carefully, than if that random, singular enployee Y had just tried to tell the supervisor directly.

        The Disability/Diversity/Equity officer doesn’t have the power to change rules, or implement anything by fiat. He can only make representations to the company and give suggestions for how things could be better. The supervisor and company still retain complete control of decision making and implementation, but the representations from the DDE officer could help the company and supervisor create or tweak policy and practices that work for an extra 10-15% of employees, and therefore a total of 85% of the company’s employees, instead of the previous 70%.

        Now, would you expect that the company provide the shareholders with exact details of: what hours the DDE officer will have, how much they’ll be paid, what room of what building they’ll operate on, how they’ll be allowed or expected to communicate with others in the organisation, etc? With the expectation that all this additional information will be entered into the company charter on acceptance, unchangeable except at very rare full General Meetings of all shareholders held every 2 or 3 decades?

        No. They just ask the shareholders if they’re on board with creating a specific position of Disability/Diversity/Equity officer, and that its existence be noted and enshrined in the company charter so the position can’t be cut during an economic downturn, or easily made redundant and dismissed if an ideologically driven CEO just didn’t like the idea of having a specific Disability/Equity officer position in the company.

    • foggy@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Oh it’s not just us.

      UK, and Canada have sordid pasts as well.

          • Ilandar@aussie.zone
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            9 months ago

            I’m not disagreeing with you, but the point to understand here is that Australia cannot even make it over the very first hurdle. Indigenous peoples are recognised in Canada’s constitution, the Canadian government has signed many treaties over hundreds of years and Canada even has a form of Indigenous self-governance in Nunavut. Australia cannot get anywhere even close to these things. Constitutional recognition was just rejected, widespread treaty making is only in its infancy and self-governance is an absolute pipe dream.

            Other former colonies may be shitty towards their Indigenous peoples, but at the very least there is generally some form of recognition of their importance as Indigenous. In Australia, we do not even see Indigenous peoples as Indigenous. We don’t understand what that word actually means. So much of the commentary from No voters during this referendum was about how Indigenous Australians are just another racial minority group, equating them with Chinese Australians, Indian Australians, etc. People fundamentally do not understand the difference, because they do not understand the history of their own country.

          • Afghaniscran@feddit.uk
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            9 months ago

            I’m from the UK so I can vouch that the government are actively shitty to it’s not rich people.

            • supert@lemmy.sdfeu.org
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              9 months ago

              If I want to explain the class system to someone from a former colony, I start with colonialism, but practised at home.

          • blargerer@kbin.social
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            9 months ago

            It could be ignorance, but as a Canadian of European descent, I’d have claimed we were passively shitty more than actively shitty.

  • SuperJetShoes@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I’m sorry, I’m stupid and not up-to-date with this.

    Taken at face value, Constitutional Recognition for the indigenous population sounds correct.

    So what was wrong with it?

    • nonailsleft@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      The majority of Australians are decendant from the colonists, an they’re against it. They’re never going to leave

    • Affidavit@aussie.zone
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      9 months ago

      It’s clear that most of the people responding to you are being deceptive and crying ‘racism’ to make themselves feel superior.

      This was not a referendum to recognise indigenous people. Whomever titled this article is a liar. It was a referendum to create an advisory body that makes representations to parliament to support a specific race. Contrary to the holier-than-thou crowd around here, many people voted ‘No’ because they do not agree with permanently enshrining this in the Constitution.

    • Peddlephile@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      The referendum isn’t about recognition of the indigenous population. That was 1967, which overwhelmingly passed.

      This referendum was to add into the constitution that a body (a group of people) that represents the voice of indigenous and Torres strait Islander people must exist.

      That’s it.

      The obfuscation occurred when people expected more from it, which a constitution does not do. That’s a legislative power, which the current government of the time will then determine how the body is made up, how people will be chosen for the Voice etc. Additionally, there was a huge misinformation campaign and we have a media monopoly with an agenda here, so many, many people voted No as a result of the confusion.

      The No vote was very, very largely done in good conscience. I firmly believe that these voters want what’s best for Australia and I’m glad for that. I wish it was a Yes, but hopefully this will spur more conversation on what we can do to bridge the gap.

    • MüThyme@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Nothing.

      The no and yes sides to a referendum prepare an informational pamphlet that everyone receives but there’s absolutely no requirement that any of it be truthful, so the opposition just openly lied until the whole thing died.

      Actual information was obscured, fear mongering was rampant, the voice was harmless at worst, but could have been the spark that changed Australia for the better.

      • fiat_lux@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        Also generations of non-ATSI Australian children being taught total dehumanising racist bullshit, and never being corrected largely because the genocide was very successful.

        A society can’t just start trying to correct some of the history taught to children over the last few years, and then be surprised by the outcome of a referendum when success relies on the judgement of people who grew up on the old lies. Correcting the record for the next generation is necessary, but it doesn’t fix the existing damage the lies have done and continue to do.

        I don’t know what Labor was thinking when they took this path. From the outside it looks like a huge unforced strategic failure.

        Shit’s fucked and there are no simple solutions and I hate it.

      • SuperJetShoes@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Thank you. But I’m still not sure I get it. Could you maybe give an example of what kind of lie or fear mongering would make people want to say:

        “No, I don’t want the constitution to recognise that there were an indigenous people here before us.”

        That seems like an unarguable fact, isn’t it?

        I’m sorry, I don’t mean to put you on the spot but since you were kind enough to take the time to give an overview, it makes me hungry for more detail!

        • Inductor@feddit.de
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          9 months ago

          The referendum was (if I understand it correctly) about adding an advisory body of indigenous people to parliament. This wouldn’t have given them any power to make decisions, only to advise parliament on things.

          The No Campaign just straight up lied to people saying it would let them write laws, take away your land, etc…

          • Welt@lazysoci.al
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            9 months ago

            The democratic result was clear. Assuming it was all about racism is so reductive that you’re stultifying your own outlook by simplifying a more complex issue.

        • snoopen@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          First off to be precise, this was a ”proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in its constitution and establish a body to advise parliament on Indigenous issues".

          Some examples of what I think were sadly effective for the no campaign:

          “This will allow indigenous peoples to reclaim your land”

          “It will only further divide our nation”

          “We don’t know how this might be misused”

          These all play on peoples fear. On the other hand some indigenous peoples also were campaigning for a no vote, primarily because they thought it wasn’t strong enough.

          This gave voters a lot of reasons to hide behind while voting no.

          And all this was not helped by a rather poor yes campaign that barely did anything to address misconceptions.

        • buddhabound@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Then go look it up, lazy. That other person has no obligation to teach you a customized course on the Australian referendum to recognize indigenous peoples. Use the internet that you’re reading their post with to look it up yourself if you’re so hungry for detail. I’d be willing to bet you can find scanned copies of each pamphlet if you tried. I’d Google it to find out for sure, but then you’d want me to read them to you.

          • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
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            9 months ago

            How would someone unfamiliar with Australia, unfamiliar with our laws, unfamiliar with our methods of referenda get the information better from the pamphlets over asking Australians?

            The pamphlets have falsehoods. They are released by the election commission. People not from Australia would assume it is verified information if it’s in an election commission pamphlet, for instance.

            Rather than being helpful, your comment in unnecessarily combative, while being confidently incorrect.

          • SuperJetShoes@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Your point is a valid one, so I’ll answer it. Initially I did use Google. I was overloaded with a mash-up of sites from which it would have been difficult to resolve right from wrong. As this doesn’t relate to my country I’d have simply moved on.

            Instead, I feel much more informed from all the considered, well-written responses which people were kind enough to write here.

          • CybranM@kbin.social
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            9 months ago

            I dont understand people who complaining about other people asking simple questions. What a waste of time to make such a pointless and angry reply.

        • CalamityJoe@aussie.zone
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          9 months ago

          Arguments included:

          “If you don’t know, say no” Incredibly reductionist, could be used to justify any position, but a very effective soundbite. It’s only when you extrapolate it, that you realise the issues. Imagine if someone told you “If you don’t know whether a girl/boy will say yes to you, never ask them out on a date”. Uncertainty is an inherent part of most of human nature. A lot less humans would be born if no one had the presence of mind to find out more about whether a person liked them, or just took a gamble and asked for a date.

          “This will allow aboriginals to claim and take your land” Because Australia was declared “terra nullus” on ‘discovery’, and therefore regarded as uninhabited under English law, colonisers basically took and claimed all the land and dispossesed the Native Australians. And ever since, there’s been a resistance to recognising prior ownership and use by native Australians, because that might threaten current ownership of land. No one wants land and property they own to be arbitrarily taken away from them with no recompense (ironic, yes?), so it’s very easy to create fear in current landowning/propertyowning Australians by saying increased recognition of indigenous Australians in any form could have their land taken from them and given back to indigenous Australians.

          “This will be a 3rd chamber of parliament” There are currently two houses of Parliament of government, in which candidates are voted and elected by a majority of their constituents. The houses form the core mechanics of how laws are created, debated and enacted. By portraying the proposed advisory body as a 3rd legislative body on par with the 2 existing houses, and pointing out the body was to be formed from indigenous Australians, the no campaign capitalised on fears of changing our entire political system, and the false impression of giving indigenous Australians incredibly disproportionste and unfair weighting within the political system.

          “Enshrining a specific ‘political’ body made up of only indigenous Australians in the constitution makes us unequal, because they don’t do that for other Australians”. This one tries to capitalise on feelings of equality, and therefore fairness. Because I don’t get X, they shouldn’t have X. And neatly creates the assumption that the status quo is equal, so why change it. Ignoring that indigenous Australians are a very small percent of population, and therefore less than 5% or so of the voting population, so unlikely to ever form an effective voting bloc or have their needs and desires reflected in mainstream politics like the average Australian might. Also, the statistics for quality of life are extremely poor when compared to the average Australian, in terms of social and financial mobility, education, health, prison incarceration rates, birth complication rates etc. The average life expectancy of an indigenous Australian is at least 8 years lower than the average Australian. These have been persistent gaps in societal outcomes that haven’t closed despite decades of government focus and money, hence trying something new, like the Voice.

          “It won’t do anything, so there’s no point creating it” The argument was that this body has no executive powers, and can only talk ‘at’ the government, and there’s no obligation in the current wording in the referendum, that the government even needs to listen. So it won’t achieve anything at all, it will be useless and ineffective.

          “It does too much” The argument was that it was too powerful, and would put too much unequal power in the hands of indigenous Australians, and that it would therefore be unfair and unequal. That it would allow indigenous Australians to create laws, change them, create treaties between them and Australia, recognise indigenous land rights etc.

          Lots more out there, but that’s it for now from me

    • PatFusty@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Sunce Lemmy constitutes 99% ‘Yes men’ circlejerks ill try to rationalize the opposition. From what I was told, there is no language in the proposal to suggest the extent of how the Aboriginals power over any matter. It gave them the freedom to be a blockade in matters that dont even affect them. This is what an aus friend has told me.

      • fiat_lux@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        Your friend was wrong. All it required was that a designated group of people be consulted with to discuss an issue - if they wanted to discuss it. There was no veto power attached or any other additional rights or privileges conveyed.

      • TheDankHold@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        Now that two people have shattered the circlejerk you live in are you going to reassess anything? Maybe let your Australian friend know that he was duped too.

        • PatFusty@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          Lol i dont know, i was playing telephone… I may have just jumbled it all up. You guys are ridiculous.

    • danl@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Leaving the moral arguments aside, there were also massive campaign failures on the Yes side. No had two clear cheerleaders with an absurdly simple catchphrase: “If you don’t know, vote No”. Meanwhile Yes didn’t have a star for the campaign and had made the amendment way too simple/general so there weren’t any included details of the practicalities. So they ended up with 100 people having to re-explain their plans every campaign stop and occasionally tripping over each other’s messages. As a result, the complicated sell from Yes played right into No‘s hands.

      • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        So the No side’s campaign was one of deliberately not educating people? To me that just says that people educated on the subject are voting Yes.

        While that may be an absurdly simple slogan, it is also absurdly stupid.

          • Ilandar@aussie.zone
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            9 months ago

            I don’t understand why the media is so desperate to frame the result around cost of living. It was clearly about education.

        • Elliemac@aussie.zone
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          9 months ago

          The ‘No’ campaign was largely nonexistent. The ‘Yes’ campaign was enough reason to vote ‘No’. And the ‘No’ voters are just as educated as ‘Yes’ voters. It’s just that some people can’t understand why other people would disagree with them.

        • Cypher@aussie.zone
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          9 months ago

          The only Territory to vote yes, out of all our States and Territories, was the Australian Capital Territory which is the most educated and most involved with governance.

  • temp_acct_001@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    The article is deliberately misleading. The vote was to change the Australian Constitution to include a section giving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples a voice in parliament, which they already have through inner dialogue between their mobs and local government. How this constitutional change would look or be enacted was not known and very vague, with the crux being that it would still be government controlled, there was widespread animosity from First Nations people about it being another ‘white-man’s decision’, it would create division by being unequal when indigenous Australians are striving for equality.

  • gorkette@aussie.zone
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    9 months ago

    If the Yes campaign are serious about the Voice to the nation being important to the Indigenous people, then no-one is standing in the way of making it happen. The vote to enshrine it in the Constitution failed, but the body can still be created and can still function primarily the same.

  • Silverseren@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    It’s always so funny when Americans on here, including me, are openly willing to discuss how shitty, racist, and full of bigots the United States is. Around 40% of the population is complete filth and we’re happy to openly acknowledge that.

    Meanwhile, Canada, the UK, and Australian users, even if they’re on the left, try to find excuses to not acknowledge that their general public is also significantly racist and bigoted. And always have been.

    • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 months ago

      yeah nah cus. we’re racist as and generally the progressives are willing to admit it.

      Our cities don’t have shit like the stark divide I saw over in Atlanta Georga usa where there’s like the black side and the white side (was 20 years ago, better now?) but like even in sydney we have the red rooster line. Beyond that the wealthy east likes to assume everyone on the other more non white migrant side is an ignorant moron.

      But especially to blackfellas we’re horrible. I remember being told not to walk down streets because an “abbo” lived there as a kid. Like what the flying faaaark?

    • Bo7a@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      Lefty Canuck here - Very willing to admit my country is full of racist pieces of shit. And so is every other country. 30% of the world is made up of trash humans who would fuck over their mother for a dollar, or to get to their destination 10 seconds faster.

    • jabathekek@sopuli.xyz
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      9 months ago

      The Canadian government loves to advertise how open and inclusive they are, while at the same time oppressing indigenous people. For example (although it was a while ago, I don’t think a lot has changed), the Oka crisis started over a Golf Course wanting to expand into indigenous territory, which the Canadian Government eventually deployed the military (largest deployment since WWII) to support… the Golf Course.

      Even elected representatives have to deal with racist bullshit while serving their country (like Mumilaaq Qaqqaq of Nunavut). It’s so intertwined in Canadian society it often isn’t recognized, likely because for the most part it isn’t overt. A lot of the racism is subtle, reinforced by inequitable laws & policies and almost always acted on if there’s plausible deniability (that is, unless they screw up). It’s almost like a lot of Canadians are politely racist.

      • IvanOverdrive@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        The origin of the horsy police was to control indigenous peoples and take their children away to residential schools. Not much has changed in the meantime. They just pretend to police in the off hours when they aren’t ignoring forced sterilizations and disappearances of native women, giving starlight tours, and pointing AR-15s at unarmed protestors in their own homes on behalf of the oil pipeline companies.