No “The voice”: Australia rejects the indigenous body that would have influenced parliament
Australia held a national referendum on whether to create a special body to represent the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Federal Parliament.
More than 60% of Australians voted “No ” in Saturday's historic referendum on whether to amend the constitution to recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with an indigenous advisory body, the Voice to Parliament, which would advised parliament on community issues.
To pass, Australia's first referendum in almost a quarter of a century needed a national majority and majorities in at least four states. All six states rejected the proposal, so not only was the referendum rejected, it was rejected badly. Of course, the left-wing media responded with anger and indignation to the popular vote.
“This is a bitter irony,” the indigenous leaders said in a statement. “That people who have lived on this continent for only 235 years refuse to recognize those whose home has been this land for 60,000-plus years is beyond reason.”
They said they would lower the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flag to half-mast for the week and urged others to do the same. Furthermore, the Aboriginal people have proclaimed a week of silence.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up 3.8% of Australia's 26 million people and have inhabited the country for around 60,000 years. But they are not mentioned in the Constitution and are the most disadvantaged people in the country by most socioeconomic measures.
“It's very clear that reconciliation is dead,” Marcia Langton, an architect on The Voice, told NITV. “I think it will take at least two generations before Australians are able to put their colonial hatred behind them and recognize that we exist.”
Reconciliation Australia, an Indigenous body, said the community had been left to grapple with "ugly acts of racism and misinformation" that they said were a feature of the debate.
Australian indigenous leader and former national rugby union player Lloyd Walker said the path to reconciliation seems difficult now, but the community must keep fighting.
“We can say it was defeated, but there were still 40% of people who wanted it. Years and years ago we certainly wouldn't have had that percentage,” Walker said.
A defeat for the prime minister
Labursita Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has staked significant political capital on the Voice referendum, but his critics say it was his biggest misstep since coming to power in May last year.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton said it was a referendum "that Australia didn't need" and had only ended up dividing the nation.
One of the main reasons for the loss was the lack of bipartisan support, with the leaders of the main conservative parties campaigning for the “No” vote.
No referendum has passed in Australia without bipartisan support.
“Much will be asked about the role of racism and anti-Indigenous prejudice in this outcome,” the leaders said in the statement. “The only thing we ask is that every Australian who voted in this election think carefully about this issue.”
Even Australians are tired of racist rhetoric
Even if there is no definitive treaty between Aboriginal populations and the federal government, as has been done in Canada, at the same time the Australian indigenous populations have broad recognition from a cultural point of view Downunder, and to notice it it would be enough to visit a museum in Sydney or Melbourne.
Since the 1970s many Aboriginal land rights have been recognized, severely limiting the expansion of mining and agricultural activities on their lands. Now, in a situation that is not economically easy even there, the population is starting to give priority to economic growth, even at the expense of exceptional rights guaranteed to Aboriginal minorities.
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The article Nothing “The voice”: Australia rejects indigenous body that would have influenced parliament comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/niente-the-voice-laustralia-respinge-lorgano-degli-indigeni-che-avrebbe-influenzato-il-parlamento/ on Sun, 15 Oct 2023 09:00:41 +0000.