this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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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.

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[–] gladflag@lemmy.ml 87 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] maegul@lemmy.ml 45 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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.

[–] zik@zorg.social 38 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

[–] Selmafudd@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] maegul@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yea that’s kinda what I meant. The No campaign here was pretty easy to cook up I think. And for the Liberal party it was a very attractive chance to kick the Labor govt down no matter the cause.

Which means, IMO, if you were going to do this, you had to be ready for all of that and not rely on calls to be “be on the right side of history”. Australia isn’t there and needs convincing, unfortunately.

[–] zik@zorg.social 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The mining lobby seems to be behind it too - they stand to lose a lot if Aboriginal rights are given more credence.

Clive Palmer dropped (at least) $2 mill on the No campaign. That says a lot about what it's worth.

[–] TrippaSnippa@aussie.zone 4 points 1 year ago

Not to mention that the bar for a referendum to pass is very high. For the non-Australians, you need not only a majority of voters nationally to vote yes, but also a majority of states to vote yes (the so-called "double majority"). Only 8 of the last 44 referendums before now have passed and partisan referendums have never passed, so this one was doomed the minute Dutton decided to play politics with it.

[–] EinfachUnersetzlich@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

I wish somebody had said that about Brexit.

[–] Wooki@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The yes campaign did it to itself with its vague and questionable impact.

[–] zik@zorg.social 1 points 1 year ago

The mining lobby funded some of the yes campaign and then proceeded to put out those vague and questionable messages. They really played both sides very effectively.

[–] DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] notsofunnycomment@mander.xyz 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They will be ready when there are no indigenous people left.

[–] ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Tasmania taking point on this.

[–] Welt@lazysoci.al 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That's perpetuating the racist myth that Tasmanian Aboriginal people were exterminated entirely. The Black War in Tassie arguably was a genocide but there are some Indigenous descendants today.

But with Tasmania's functional literacy below fifty percent (never mind two-thirds of the island's population being welfare dependent), it's never going to be the centre of intellectual discourse of any kind in this country.

So... you agree then? That Tasmania has done more / come closer to achieving that horrific goal than other states?

I didn't say "exterminated entirely". I said "taking point". As in leading the nation (state-wise).

I can understand the misunderstanding from an implication - but remembering the Black War is a good way to help fight against it happening again.

[–] MossyFeathers@pawb.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] themajesticdodo@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

60% of the country voted against it. Your attribution of this to the media alone is juvenile.

[–] MossyFeathers@pawb.social 5 points 1 year ago

Bruh, over the past 6-7 years we've been shown time and time again how incredibly powerful media manipulation is, both when it comes to traditional media and social media. Seriously?