Australia Votes ‘No’ in its Indigenous Voice Referendum

BRIAN SOCKINGTON : The ‘Indigenous Voice to Parliament’ referendum, Australia‘s first attempt at constitutional change since 1999, has been overwhelmingly rejected across the country in a pre-halloween horror show, challenging many to ‘Try and Understand It’ – as prophesied in the 1986 song ‘You’re the Voice’ by clairvoyant former popstar John Farnham. Prime Minister Albanese’s ‘Voice’ was billed as a historic moment for national unity – a chance to right the wrongs of our colonial past and recognise Indigenous Australians in the nation’s constitution. However many viewed the mandated parliamentary advisory body as divisive and were apprehensive about permanently changing the constitution without first understanding details such as how ‘The Voice’ would operate, what its scope would be, who would be in it, whether it provided a pathway to treaty and reparations, how it would be funded, why it would close a gap between indigenous and other… 

SANDY HOSIER: [Interrupting] That’s right Brian. 65% of Australians started out in favour of Albo’s Voice proposal just last year, but support consistently dwindled throughout the campaign, culminating in only 39% of Australians voting in favour of the proposal at the referendum, and defeat in every state and territory… except for Canberra of course.

BRIAN: What’s Canberra? 

SANDY: Australia’s capital Brian?

BRIAN: Oh, yes, right…

SANDY: Former INN Tonight host Larry Fillmore was an active campaigner for the ‘Yes’ movement and took questions from the press after results became clear – shortly after voting started…

Q1: Mr FILLMORE Mr FILLMORE! It seems clear Australians weren’t convinced that the scope of The Voice was contained within that one-page Uluru statement. How do you respond to that?

LARRY FILLMORE: Well, look what I will say is, umm, we had the chance to turn the pages over… I mean, look, you can write what you wanna write, but we gotta make ends meet… before we get much older… that’s what we tried to do…

Q2. Mr FILLMORE, which demographics were the most to blame for this result?

FILLMORE: Listen, I want to be clear here, ahh, we’re ALL someone’s daughter, and we’re all someone’s son… I mean, how long are we gonna look at each other, you know

Q2. Down the barrel of a gun?

FILLMORE: Well, that seems a little harsh, but…  

Q3. Have you heard from the Prime Minister yet? How’s he feeling after the vote?

FILLMORE: Yes, I spoke with Albo and said, Look mate, You’re the Voice, we all understand it. But voters made a noise and they made it clear… {Interruption] Ok, I’ll take one more question…

Q4. What would you say to indigenous people who might be feeling a bit let down by the ‘Yes’ movement and Labor’s handling of the referendum tonight? 

FILLMORE: Look, I’d just say that we are all very confident, that uh,  next time, you know, we will all stand together, we have the power to be powerful, we believe that we can make it…

Q4. Better!?

FILLMORE: Well, no, no I wouldn’t go that far…

SANDY: So the answers were inside John Farnham’s ‘You’re the Voice’ after all? Even though the ads featuring the song didn’t quite sway voters…

BRIAN: No they didn’t, but the song was a wonderful metaphor for what transpired during this referendum. A hit idea imported from overseas that got wildly popular with Aussies until it was so overplayed it lost its substance… and was then exploited to try and sell a product that wasn’t what people wanted… 

SANDY: Ahh, advertising… Anyway, Christinea Soletich took a deeper look into ‘The Voice’ and its slow fall from sure thing, to ‘in the bin’… 

CHRISTINEA SOLEITCH: “Try And Understand It” – the poignant words in the chorus of Australia’s proxy national anthem. But as the final votes were tallied in Australia’s Voice referendum, exactly who needs to understand what is still very much up for debate. Over 60% of Australia rejected ‘The Voice’, despite heavy backing for over a year by almost every media, corporate, celebrity and institutional entity in the country. Worldwide media quickly blamed misinformation and racism for the result. Yes voters kept their posters up INNformation, rueing the No campaign’s masterful strategy of using actual Indigenous people to deliver their message. And the mainstream media are still wondering how their time and money failed to get a majority INNformation with ‘The Voice’. ABC host Patricia Karavelis could barely contain her anger interviewing former Labor president turned Liberal MP Warren Mundine. Nor could Channel 9’s ’60 Minutes’ reporter Ameilia Adams while interviewing opposition leader Peter Dutton. Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price copped criticism for using her voice during The Voice campaign. And Indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe wasn’t gonna be INNformation with anyone! But perhaps it was Tasmanian Aboriginal activist and lawyer Micheal Mansell who best summed up the referendum on ABC’s post-vote ‘wake’ show.

So the final result was defeat at both the state and national level, at a cost of $450million dollars, while significant gaps remains between the outcomes of indigenous and other Australians, despite five previous indigenous advisories to parliament since the ‘70s, each state having their own indigenous advisories, and an estimated $33.4 billion dollars of Indigenous Expenditure each year, including $6 billion on programs and services inside exclusively Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. And almost all Australians still support constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians. It’s like we’re stuck in a pre-halloween time loop where it’s still 1990 and former PM Bob Hawke has forgotten to get ‘round to delivering the Aboriginal Treaty he promised – like other commonwealth governments did hundreds of years ago. 

But at least a few more of us are aware that we have a constitution? And we’ll all forget this happened in a couple of weeks anyway rather than try to understand it. Christinea Soleitch, INN News.

BRIAN: Thanks Christinea. And with all that money and support for The Voice, perhaps Australian should consider other factors than idiocy, racism and misinformation for its failure, and how The Voice would have addressed issues better than the current National Indigenous Australians Agency, or the Coalition of Peaks… 

SANDY: The what-a-lition of what?

BRIAN: The Coalition of Peaks? 

SANDY: I’ve never heard of a Coalition of the Peaks?

BRIAN: Yes, They’re the federal Indigenous advisory body we already have – over 80 Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander groups that inform government decision making, even though they aren’t enshrined in the constitution, sadly…

SANDY: Really? Isn’t that already kind of voice-like? 

BRIAN: Well Warren Mundine thinks so…

SANDY: Wow! So if The Voice wasn’t what Australia needed, then what is? 

BRIAN: I don’t know Sandy – Perhaps that’s the IT John Farnham’s song was telling us to try and understand?