The Yes vote lost: the Prime Minister is to blame

The referendum on incorporating an aboriginal voice in the Constitution of Australia was rejected. The no vote rejected the proposition on a substantial count. What were the reasons?

The international press has condemned the result. 'Lies fuel racism': is how the global media covered Australia's Voice to Parliament referendum. Even the straightforward Associated Press declared the rejection of the Voice as a "major setback to the country's efforts for reconciliation with its First Peoples". Similarly, Reuters reported on fears the result "could set back reconciliation efforts by years".

Is Australia racist? The answer is no. This writer believes that the Prime Minister is to blame.

During the run up prior to the referendum many voters stated that they did not have enough information on which to make a decision. I agreed with that opinion, then. I am now sure that the Prime Minister is the principal reason why the referendum lost. His reason was possibly to overcome the many disabilities faced by Australia's first peoples, but he did not provide enough reason to support this objective.

In admitting defeat after the referendum, the Prime Minister said:

"I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet. I pay my respects to their elders past and present. And on behalf of the Australian Labor Party, I commit to the Uluru statement from the heart in full''. He then went on to state that he would continue to work towards ameliorating the disadvantages suffered by the Nation's first peoples. He should have stated that prior to the referendum.

Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney urged Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people not to be defeated by the result.

"I know the last few months have been rough,'' she said.

"Be proud of the 65,000 years of history and culture. We will carry on and we'll move forward. This is not the end of reconciliation."

Ms Burney said in the months ahead the Albanese Government would have more to say about new commitments.

"Because we all agree we need better outcomes for First Nations people."

Nationals leader David Littleproud, accusing the Prime Minister of "hubris", noting the recriminations had started before the polls closed at 6pm AEST and declared the PM would be to blame if the referendum failed. He was right. His rural seat of Maranoa, which extends from Warwick, Dalby and Kingaroy to the Northern Territory border, saw a whopping 84 per cent of people vote No.

"He let it get away from him and he didn't bring the parties with him, and he was warned not to divide our country," Littleproud said.

"He is the one who has taken this to the people, he runs the parliament, he runs the country, and this sits squarely at his feet."

Peter Dutton, Leader of the opposition, also said much of the blame for the drop in support rested on Mr Albanese's shoulders.

This opinion writer, although a believer that Dutton was also a major reason why the referendum lost, believes that Albanese is the major reason. Neither of our opposing political leaders served the country well. They did not tell us that Australia's first citizens are suffering major disadvantages. Aboriginal elders have since told us: "We now know where we stand in our own country".

The problems Australian Aboriginals face are immense.

Australian Aboriginal children are eleven times more likely to be removed from their families by child protection services and to end up in care.

Indigenous Australians are the most incarcerated people in the world. 3.3% of Australian population is aboriginal, 30% of prison population is aboriginal. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults make up around 2% of the national population and they constitute 27% of the national prison population.

About 20 per cent of Aboriginal people in the major cities are estimated to live in poverty. A 2016 report from Australian National University's Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research found the situation is much worse in remote areas.

They have a much lower life expectancy rate. The gap stands at 8.6 years for males while indigenous females expect to live 7.8 years less than everyday Australians.

The underlying reason behind these problems is undoubtedly the massacres of aboriginals and the dispossession from their lands. They are beaten people, savaged in the wars to take over their land, now with little land and little self-respect. University of Newcastle historian Emeritus Professor Lyndall Ryan estimates more than 10,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lives were lost in more than 400 massacres. "More massacres happened in the period 1860 to 1930 than in the period 1788 to 1860," Professor Ryan said. The aboriginals resisted the taking over of their lands, as anyone anywhere in the world would. Frequently raiding parties of settlers and police would attack aboriginal communities, driving them off their lands. Some of the coverage, notably Calla Wahlquist in the Guardian, refers to overall estimates of the number of deaths, which may be as high as 65,000 in Queensland alone.

Between 4,000 and 7,000 Aboriginals were in Tasmania, then Van Diemen's Land, when the British military arrived with a group of convicts in 1803. Within 50 years, all but 200 of the Aboriginals were dead.

The Australian Wars is a three-part 2022 documentary series about the Australian frontier wars by indigenous Australian filmmaker Rachel Perkins made for SBS Television. Using interviews, re-enactments, archaeological research, and original documents, it explores massacres of aboriginals in NSW, Tasmania, and Queensland.

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.