<
https://theconversation.com/why-the-voice-referendum-failed-and-what-the-government-hasnt-learned-from-it-255969>
"More than two years on, you’d be forgiven for thinking the story of the
failure of the referendum on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice has
been neatly folded away and filed as a story of inevitable loss. Bipartisanship
was essential. The country was not ready. Racism raised its ugly head. The
proposal was too radical.
As we explore in our recently released book, contrary to some accounts, the
Voice referendum was not doomed from the start. It was a carefully developed
proposal for constitutional reform, crafted over more than a decade, supervised
by successive federal governments from both sides of politics.
Its defeat was the product of a complex amalgam of factors. The Albanese
government announced first and prepared later. It failed to genuinely engage
with the First Nations people who had been developing this reform for years. It
misread and was over-confident about the political terrain following the
Coalition’s 2022 election defeat.
Then there was the No campaign, spearheaded by key opposition figures that
openly relied on political lies and conspiracy claims, in a largely unregulated
political and media environment.
But we explore an under-emphasised dimension of this story: the government’s
own lack of preparation and respect for the reform it had committed to take to
the people."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
