The “Voice” was never going to transform the lives of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples. But it might have been a small step forward, an expression of a purpose of amendment. The referendum proposal, which was decisively defeated three to two in Saturday’s vote, was by any standard only a modest attempt to provide a means of redressing the historic wrongs inflicted – and still being inflicted – on the country’s marginalised First Nations Peoples, three per cent of its population. On offer was simply a non-binding consultative body christened the Voice.
The defeat of the proposal will, however, seriously disappoint the majority of the Indigenous community who backed the poll, and, fairly or not, send a message out that relics of bigotry still hold sway in parts of the country. That may not have been the ostensible purpose of the No campaigners: the referendum was opposed by, among others, the main opposition party, the Liberals, on the grounds that enshrining rights to the Voice would be inappropriate and inject racial division into the country’s basic document. It was also opposed by sections of the Aboriginal community, who saw it as a tokenist gesture.
The yes-no mechanism of a referendum vote effectively grouped together some of the strongest advocates of the rights of the Indigenous Peoples, who argued it was not enough, with those opposing the Voice and some moderates with doubts about constitutional tinkering. And those who simply wanted to give Labour Prime Minister Anthony Albanese a bloody nose.
As Irish referendums have proved , there is no way to ensure that voters confine themselves to approving or rejecting the question asked.
The historic wrongs remain largely unaddressed: the theft of land and forced removal of children; the poverty and lower life expectancy; the hopelessness of the young; the health and educational apartheid; the destruction of language and culture of a civilisation with more than 250 distinct nations. And Australia’s international reputation, too, has taken a blow.