No vote was deafening but PM still not listening
Two months since the failed Voice referendum, it’s obvious the Albanese government and Yes campaigners have misunderstood the message from the Australian people, and Indigenous Australians, on October 14.
The referendum showed the utter rejection of the Voice and the Uluru Statement by the Australian people. And no evidence of widespread Indigenous support. There was a resounding No vote in areas most Aboriginal people – and most people who count Aboriginal people among friends, colleagues, family and neighbours – live: in remote, regional areas and working class suburbs.
In the wake of the referendum, Voice supporters in the Yes campaign and the media claimed voting data in remote Indigenous booths proves Indigenous people overwhelmingly voted Yes. This is a lie. The data, in fact, demonstrates profound indifference. Whereas national voter turnout was close to 90 per cent, available data indicates average turnout in majority Indigenous communities was under 40 per cent.
For example, booths in Fitzroy Crossing returned 315 total votes, of which 224 were Yes. The last census recorded 810 Indigenous adults and 422 other adults in Fitzroy Crossing, suggesting voter turnout as low as 26 per cent. Even if every voter was Indigenous, under 30 per cent of Indigenous adults voted Yes and over 60 per cent didn’t vote at all.
The same approach in Halls Creek, Palm Island and Yarrabah, similarsized communities with high majority Indigenous populations, suggests voter turnout of 18 per cent, 32 per cent and 42 per cent respectively, with percentage of Indigenous adults who voted Yes ranging from 14 per cent to 33 per cent and the percentage who didn’t vote ranging from over 70 per cent to over 55 per cent.
These are small communities. How about a larger sample. The census counted over 11,900 Indigenous adults and 6200 other adults in postcode 0822 that spans the remote Northern Territory top end. Booths and remote mobile teams in that postcode returned 4743 total votes, including 3451 Yes votes indicating 26 per cent voter turnout with under 30 per cent of Indigenous adults voting Yes and over 60 per cent not voting.
Australians sent a clear message on October 14 that they reject racial separation and complex, bureaucratic structures no one understands and are sick to death of billions being spent to support Indigenous people with no results. But Voice supporters in Canberra, the Yes campaign and the media understand none of this.
They’ve claimed Australians voted No because they’re racist and nasty. Voice architect Megan Davis said Australia “can no longer say that the racism imbued in our constitutional order is the legacy of ‘old, white, rich, dead men’. Modern Australia owned that on 14 October 2023.”
The open, but anonymous, letter released by the Yes campaign after the vote said racism was a “powerful driver” for the No campaign and “the majority of Australians have committed a shameful act”. These tirades claim Australians were influenced by lies but also peddled the lie that remote Indigenous people voted Yes. Since the referendum, people who’ve come up to me thanking me for my work campaigning against the Voice and talking about why they opposed it include people from all continents, religions, all shades of skin colour. I haven’t met any white supremacists, only people who want the best for Indigenous people.
After travelling the country speaking about the Voice for over a year, I learned most Australians want to see Indigenous lives improve and real outcomes. Jobs. Business creation. Kids going to school. Safe communities. Many voted Yes because they believed the Voice would deliver improvements. Many voted No because they believed the Voice would not, or would make things worse.
The Albanese government hasn’t listened to the Australian people. Despite the rejection of the Voice, it’s planning to install local and regional Voices across the country anyway.
Why? There are already hundreds of Indigenous representative and controlled organisations. Talk to them. Oh wait, the government already does via the Coalition of the Peaks. The Mayor of Alice Springs, Matt Paterson, is dead right saying this initiative will add another layer of bureaucracy that will make things more difficult. Remote Indigenous populations are already the most bureaucratically smothered Indigenous Australians.
Meanwhile, a Makarrata commission for truth-telling and treaty remains funded with millions in the budget; National Indigenous Australians Agency says preparatory work for a process of consultation to inform its design is under way.
The fact that the ACT was the only state or territory to vote Yes is stark evidence of a Canberra bubble.
Those making the decisions and implementing policy are totally out of touch with the reality of most Australians and are not listening to our voices.