Voice to parliament referendum fails in defeat that Indigenous advocates will see as a blow to progress towards reconciliation

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.

    • @Cypher@aussie.zoneEnglish
      5•1 year ago

      A few of the arguments or concerns voiced by Australian’s included:

      -A Voice with no power is pointless

      -Lack of detail in the proposal

      -Separating Australian’s by race is divisive (note there’s already constitutional race powers, which I disagree with and hope will be scrapped)

      -ATSI people would have more representation than others (they actually have proportionally higher representation in Parliament today than their percentage of population)

      -Leaving the exact details of the Voice to legislation means any future government could gut it without violating the constitutional amendment

      -concerns this is the first push on a path to treaty and reparations as a percentage of GDP (which WAS discussed as a possibility by the people who worked on the Uluru statement)

      I’ve left out the outright lies, though I guarantee someone will take issue with me simply mentioning the talking points to give you context.