To be shocked that Australia voted NO on this referendum?

[koalaknickers]

"The Voice to Parliament was proposed in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, a 2017 document crafted by Indigenous leaders that set out a roadmap for reconciliation with wider Australia.

Australia's Indigenous citizens, who make up 3.8% of the country's 26 million population, have inhabited the land for about 60,000 years but are not mentioned in the constitution and are, by most socio-economic measures, the most disadvantaged people in the country."

Australia rejects Indigenous referendum in setback for reconciliation (msn.com)

I have family out there. I just assumed that they would have voted YES. I hope they did. Perhaps I should ask them.

I always wonder why there was so much fuss about that (not proven by the way). A white couple marry and expect a child and it is ok to wonder if it would be blond, dark or blue eyed. We, mixed race people, also wonder about the same things and it wasn’t racism until Meghan decided to make it. I am actually quite shocked at Oprah’s reaction to the comment, in any other setting she might have found it quite normal.

Australia is exceptionally racist. Some states are less so, and if you stick to the cities like Melbourne and Sydney you'd be likely to think that people are mostly progressive and accepting etc. But travel a little further out into the true rural and bush communities and it's like a time warp. It's not 100% and there are pockets of more progressive people in the bush (more so in Tasmania etc) but it gets quite Wild West the further out you go.

Even a friend, university educated to PhD level, was watching a footy match with me, a particular player came on a screen and she turned to me and said "oh he's got a bit of xxxxx (derogatory indigenous term) in him, hasn't he?". I did say, yes I believe he has indigenous heritage and mate, don't think you should be using that term as it's quite offensive. She seemed surprised....

So what? My husband is black, I'm white. The only person who speculated on how dark our children would be was my husband who loved to speculate on it.

I agree, I'm Australian and was out campaigning for the Yes vote but people were confused by the messaging, a lot of which was downright scaremongering for the No side.

This post is everything you just claimed Australians are. You should be ashamed of yourself for writing such shit!

I really don’t think this was a no to having Aboriginal people recognised in the constitution, but a no because of the total lack of information about The Voice Committee. Anthony Albanese basically said all the details would follow after and to just trust him. Would you vote for a politician who said that?

Well that’s us told. Clearly the UK is all tea, biscuits and everyone looks like they’re from Downtown Abbey. The only country I have ever been abused and spoken down to was your oh so amazing tolerant and utopian land.
For what it’s worth I voted yes, but the whole process was a shambles from start to finish.

Unfortunately, quite a few race baiters dwell on MN.

Don't know if anyone has seen the documentary The Australian Dream, it is about a footballer and the abuse he suffered. I found it very moving.

No surprise.

I voted No. I was not happy with the level of detail about what effects voting Yes would have on laws and the constitution. What powers advisory boards would have. How this decision would trickle down through federal and state governance etc etc.

I was under the impression right from the start that Albanese’s referendum would fail. It’s disappointing that all the money spent didn’t go towards social housing. Such a waste of taxpayer money. 😔

@Ifeellikeateenageragain ”Australia is exceptionally racist” please can you provide the list of countries that would give credence to this statement in terms of context.

Race baiter?? No absolutely not, not British either, rather Irish, and lived in Aus for quite a long time. This is my opinion based on years of living in and interacting with Australians, I found attitudes there appalling....towards First Nations people's, women, immigrants. It's actually quite sickening and I think you all so used to it you don't even see it

Well as I said earlier, it makes a change from the UK being kicked for being the most racist and misogynistic country. I also don't think anybody can form such a bold opinion after living in a country temporarily. Oh well.

Besides you've rather proved your bigotry with this referendum, lack of understanding my arse 😂

You can’t change the Australian constitution without a referendum. It wasn’t clear what voice indigenous people would have, and many indigenous people didn’t want a yes vote. It’s not racist, just a poorly executed campaign.

MY bigotry? I don't believe I've typed deliberately contentious posts. I didn't have an understanding of the subject. Unlike some, I have admitted that. Now I have, after reading up. Maybe you should do the same instead of shit stirring.

@GreyTS you are embarrassing yourself with the lack of understanding jibe.

Oh is it a race to the bottom? Because other countries can be even more discriminatory we should pat Australia on the back for the ongoing inequities for the indigenous people, the persistent racism experienced in workplaces (Stan Grant anyone?) and the continued racist terms that I still hear family and friends use in relation to "them ethnics". Right you are.

Fine. Can you please explain exactly what the referendum was about and what a yes vote would have meant going forwards. What the plan was. How that plan (whatever it was) would be implemented.

Bullet points will suffice.

This article from the Sydney Morning Herald provides a good overview of what went wrong with the yes campaign: archive.today/2023.10.15-211036/www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-devil-in-the-details-inside-the-yes-campaign-s-defeat-20231010-p5eb6h.html

The full article provides more nuance but here is a quote: "Frank Brennan, a longtime Indigenous rights advocate whose calls for compromise greatly irritated the Yes campaigners, says by April the words were set in concrete.
“It was always crazy to think that you could amend the Australian Constitution without a bipartisan process in place, without a fleshed-out model of a Voice for voters to understand what they were being asked to vote for, and with a confidential process conducted with a government-handpicked group of advisers,” Brennan says."

Why is everyone so surprised at the outcome of a referendum that had very few details of how the advisory body would function ? Most people would have voted YES to recognising Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders as the First People of the nation . It was a NO to an advisory group that would have given one race an exclusive element of privilege. Especially as so few details regarding this groups powers might or might not be . Let’s just wave the old race card

The only country I have ever been abused and spoken down to was your oh so amazing tolerant and utopian land.

Keep your hair on. I think there was a slur against the UK in there too…

”I suppose one cant separate the current population from whence they came”

I mean, a large number of convicts sent to Australia were Irish so that was a bit of a self-own from that poster.