Australians said no to giving more rights to Indigenous people. This means they won’t change the country’s 122-year-old rules. The decision came after a campaign that split people and involved race issues.
Out of the places that counted votes, 55 percent said ‘no’ to including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the country’s rules for the first time.
The changes would have also made a group called the ‘Voice’ to Parliament. They would help decide on laws that affect Indigenous communities and try to fix big differences in society.
Even though the government supported this, the ‘yes’ side was behind in surveys for a long time. Many people expected them to lose.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles admitted the loss early in the evening. He told the TV channel ABC, ‘Australians didn’t choose to change the rules.’
Even though many thought they might lose, Indigenous Australians are upset that most white people voted against facing the country’s violent history.
The campaign director of the “Yes” side, Dean Parkin, said, “This is a tough outcome, very tough. We tried our best, and we’ll bounce back from this.”
About 230 years ago, when the first British ships came to Sydney, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese suggested these changes to help heal racial divides. However, it led to a heated argument between First Nations people and the majority of white Australians.
Most voters, who are mostly white, don’t consider Indigenous issues as very important in politics.
Before the vote, the news was talking more about events in the Middle East than the discussion at home.
The other side cleverly used people’s worries about how the “Voice” group would work, telling them to vote “no” if they weren’t sure.
There was a lot of wrong information online, suggesting that the “Voice” would lead to taking land, a system like apartheid in South Africa, or that it was part of a plan by the United Nations.
Indigenous leader Thomas Mayo was very angry at how the “No” campaign behaved. They were supported by the opposition leader, Peter Dutton.
“They lied to the Australian people. In our democracy, this kind of dishonesty should not be forgotten,” he said. “There should be consequences for this kind of behavior in our democracy. They shouldn’t get away with it.
‘An extra layer of bureaucracy’
Dee Duchesne, who is 60 years old, helped the “no” campaign for free. She wanted to prevent adding more complicated rules to our constitution.
While giving out papers near a voting place in Sydney before the official voting day, some people called her racist. She insisted, “I’m not.
In Australia, all 17.6 million eligible voters must vote.
For this referendum to pass, it needed approval from most voters all over the country and in at least four out of six states.
But it seems like it didn’t get enough support for either.
The voting paper asked if people agree to change the rules to acknowledge the First Peoples of Australia by creating an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
CREDIT: FRANCE24