Politics trumping principles, hope

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Early voting is under way and passionate people are frantically trying to drum up support for their side, even when the polls suggest it’s a lost cause, in what has been a controversial and sometimes bitter and divisive campaign where politics has trumped principles.

We aren’t the only ones voting on October 14 — our neighbours across the ditch decide their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice referendum on the same day we choose our next government.

Unlike New Zealand, Canada or America, Australia never agreed treaties with its original inhabitants.

The Voice is intended to address that failure and was developed from the “Uluru Statement from the Heart”, where 250 Aboriginal leaders gathered at the sandstone monolith in the centre of Australia in 2017 and debated what form constitutional recognition should take.

Polls at the end of last year found about two-thirds of Australians backed the Voice — which would alter the country’s constitution to “recognise the First Peoples of Australia” by creating a new body that “may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government . . . on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples”.

That changed as the “no” campaign ramped up, backed by the opposition Liberal Party.

About mid-year polling switched to a majority against the Voice and it has stayed that way, with sometimes over 60 percent against when “undecideds” are removed.

The latest poll had a glimmer of hope for “yes” campaigners, but still suggests 49 percent of voters intend to vote no against 43 percent voting yes and 8 percent unsure.

The “yes” campaign has further hurdles in that it needs majorities in four of the six states as well as the national vote in order to succeed.

Compulsory voting also complicates things for a referendum such as this, as people who are semi-engaged on an issue are more likely to be risk averse.

No referendum has passed in Australia without bipartisan support, so it was a major setback for everyone who hoped the “lucky country” would start righting the wrongs of the past when Liberal leader Peter Dutton announced in April that the party would actively campaign against the indigenous Voice referendum.

Dutton said the Voice was “divisive and won’t deliver the outcomes to people on the ground” . . . thereby ensuring a divisive campaign and, it seems, a lost chance for Australians to show they do collectively want positive change for Aboriginal people.

If the polls are right and you are a left-leaning voter seeking consolation on October 15, you won’t find it in the news from Australia.