The Yes vote lost: the Prime Minister is to blame

The series received positive reviews, with a number of people calling it "essential viewing" for Australians. However, others have criticised it as exaggerating the number of Aboriginal deaths and promoting a political agenda. In response to the series, the Australian War Memorial announced it would work towards great inclusion of the violence against indigenous people in its exhibitions. The TV series won the 2023 Silver Logie for Most Outstanding Factual or Documentary Program. It estimated aboriginal deaths to be much higher than did Lyndall Ryan. Possibly 600,000 native people died in the wars.

The result of the wars aimed at exterminating aboriginal people was a loss of self-esteem and of self-confidence. They were the losers. Many believe that was the cause of the problems we have seen since.

This writer asked many people why they voted no. The most cogent reason given was that there have been many attempts to ameliorate the conditions of the Nation's first peoples. Efforts in closing the gap, as it is termed, have mostly been failures.

On 13 February 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, particularly to the Stolen Generations whose lives had been blighted by past government policies of forced child removal and assimilation. The journey to a National Apology began with the Bringing Them Home report. 13 February 2018 marked the 10th anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations issued by Kevin Rudd. It has achieved nothing. Peter Dutton, leader of the opposition was notably absent.

At least 474 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in police and prison custody since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody handed down its final report in 1991.

An allied reason for the NO vote is the failure of many attempts at reform for aboriginals, their cost, and their essential failure.

The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was a loser. Decades later the Indigenous community still waits for change.

The Constitution of Australia is notoriously difficult to change. Since 1901, 19 referendums have proposed 44 changes to the Constitution, and only eight changes have been agreed to. Yet the 1967 referendum, in which over 90% of voters agreed that First Australians deserved equal constitutional rights, remains the most successful referendum in Australian history.

To repeat, should the Australian voting public be accused of racism?

The answer is no. Our Prime minister is primarily to blame in not telling us what were the reasons for his proposal. Australia can reject the international accusations of racism, as Australia is the most multi-cultural country in the world. In the 1970s Australia began a multicultural immigration policy – a largely bi-partisan policy that has enabled Australia's economy to become one of the world's strongest, and its society to become one of the world's most peaceful. In 2021, just over 7 million people in Australia were born overseas, representing 27.6% of the population.

Two of Australia's State Premiers are multicultural. One is Peter Malinauskas in South Australia, a prominent Yes campaigner, has proposed an aboriginal voice in his own state.

Much is left to the national government to restore the wellbeing of Australia’s first peoples. Much also can be learned from this referendum. This is not the first criticism of the Australian Prime Minister or its political system.