By far the one thing that Australia’s Indigenous people need with a history tens of thousands of years long, is recognition in a White Man’s legal document telling them that they exist. More so that only through that recognition could they then have an avenue to speak to the White Man’s government.

That is what the Australian Government’s Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum on October 14, 2023, wishes to achieve. It proposes to amend the Australian Constitution by inserting the following words thereby “normalising” Australia’s Indigenous people as a part of society:

There shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to Parliament and the Executive Government on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to the composition, functions, powers and procedures of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

The referendum has been in trouble from the start. Needing a majority of Australian voters and a majority of Australian states to succeed, national opinion polling released days ago extended the “No” vote to 56%, with “Yes” 36% leaving just 8% of the electorate undecided.

“Yes” supporters point to inherent racism in Australia when they beg “No” voters to change their intent pleading that only a “Yes” can reverse a history of Indigenous maltreatment dating to the 1700s.

Indeed, this murderous and demeaning past reverberates today—rarely do Australia’s Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders escape scorn when not on the big or small screen, in concert or in sport. Even then, the shouts of abuse flow.

But what “Yes” diehards ignore is that the government led by Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese timed this referendum at the worst possible moment in their young 21st Century.

Reeling from defeats in the Global War on Terror, overwhelmed by institutional and political corruption since the Global Financial Crisis, divided by the global Covid-19 pandemic’s abjuration of science, and now riddled with cost of living and rental crises through rising interest rates and inflation the result of all three global influences, average voters are more concerned with their own survival: putting food on their tables, keeping roofs over their heads and holding onto their own dreams of fairness.

In this context, voting “No” does not make one a right-wing nutter nor a racist. In fact, it is die-hard “Yes” voters who may be the epitome of racism here.

As already noted, the Voice defines Indigenous legitimacy by its legal acceptance in White Man’s law. As bad as that is, it also spotlights the Voice’s other major flaw: It is only a “Voice”.

If “Yes” voters were truly seeking Indigenous rights, a true say in the management of national affairs as affects Indigenous people, a true application of Ingenious know-how and Indigenous lore over the Australian environment—the land, natural resources, waterways, air, flora and fauna—then they would demand a legislative veto over government.

A veto.

But they have not. “Yes” merely wishes to relegate Australia’s Indigenous people to the status of a lobby alongside miners, fossil fuel, loggers, corporations, developers and individuals able to buy a political ear.

They miss the inherent insult here. Voting “Yes” will then allow parliament to legislate the make-up and reach of this Indigenous lobby while no other lobby is so controlled.

In reality “Yes” voters want to feel good about themselves while doing little for Indigenous welfare.

“Yes” voters have bought into a groupthink that applauds “Welcome to Country” ceremonies at sporting events and “Acknowledgement of Country” monologues parroted by CEOs; they think they’re part of a great empathy each time a TV show mentions the name of an Indigenous tribe whose land is being used for filming or warns Indigenous viewers about photography capturing their image.

Yet, there they also sit relieved in the knowledge that they will never need to cede their homes or real estate to those very tribes whose land they live on, nor compensate them for its use. Nor will they ever need to accept Aboriginal environmental stewardship over their lifestyles.

It would be fair to say that the majority of “No” voters are far from racist. They merely see the Voice for what it is: political PR, corporate marketing, toothless hype, money making, and more corruption—siphoning resources from their own plight. Seventy-five million dollars already spent to run the vote and a projected three-hundred million to implement it if it succeeds.

Racism is certainly a factor in the “No” vote. That cannot be denied. Just do not also deny that “Yes” voters are racist too.

They are pushing a vision of Indigenous hope that simply will not manifest itself if this referendum is won. And that is the greatest cruelty of all.

© 2023 Adam Parker.

Picture credit: “Information booklet: Recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through a Voice”. Authorised by the Australian Government, Parliament House, Canberra. 2023.