#Australian referendum 2023

[claraameliapond]

PSA : THE INDIGENOUS VOICE REFERENDUM 14th October 2023

The Yes Vote is literally just giving indigenous Australians A SEAT AT THE TABLE to give information and advice about issues and governmental decisions that affect them.

Indigenous information and advice for indigenous issues from indigenous Australians.

That's it . It's acknowledging their existence as the first peoples of Australia and recognising that they have valuable information to contribute about their cultures, the ways they live, what their most pressing needs are and the best ways in which to help, to enable governments to effectively help them.

The government already provides "help" each year, in an effort to close the gap on education access, healthcare access, and many other pressing needs - they are already using taxpayer money to do this but crucially, these efforts have not been successful because we are missing out on crucial information.

The Voice to Parliament gives the government access to invaluable information that enables it to create and better implement aid, education, healthcare , equal opportunity.

I have been very actively involved in many Reconciliaton efforts for the vast majority of my life -

At 16 I travelled to some of the indigenous rural communities in Australia, met elders and individuals no tourist has access to meet, learnt from them, and saw what was there.

I saw the attempts, the efforts to provide access to Western education, that the rest of the country has, to provide healthcare, housing etc.

They don't work

They are based on western ways of life, ideas of community and interaction.

It's not the same.

They don't work.

Fundamentally because even if well intentioned, your efforts to help can actually harm if you don't have access to crucial information about how indigenous communities live.

We need to accommodate our help, our efforts, our aid to the specific needs and ways of life, values and dynamics of the many indigenous communities, especially rural, that exist across Australia, so that they have access to the same human rights we all do.

The human right to healthcare and education that we all have- it's not accessible in the same ways for indigenous communities.

It's provided, but on western terms- with the western expectation that children will leave their families for 6 months at a time and travel extremely far away to attend school, for example.

This is so backwards and outdated even for western sensibilities, and an incredibly outdated mode of education that is unhealthy emotionally for any child, let alone vulnerable people who have to choose between a western run school and their culture, their families - literally being a part of their community, a present member.

There are better ways to provide access to education than this. Ways that don't disrupt their connection to community, land and culture.

And the best people to ask, to provide information that can properly inform us about these issues, and how best to navigate them, fix them, are the the indigenous Australians themselves- they are the experts.

So that our aid and help and efforts actually do - help. Actually work.

The funds are going there anyway. So we need to put it to use in effective ways.

What we have now doesn't work.

We can only make it better.

Please Vote YES for The Indigenous Voice to Parliament

It is the beginning of lasting, effective positive change for vulnerable communities, and for us all.

[estroniaid]

this place is a fucking joke

[cinnamonchaos]

for anyone in Australia, please do some reading beyond just the No Campaign and conservative media! There is so so much misinformation about what The Voice actually is and what it does.

Also remember - there is no 'progressive no'. We may agree that the government hasn't done enough, that a treaty should come first, and so much more action is needed. But voting no is slamming the door shut. It's not progressives winning, it's conservatives and racists and self-serving politicians. A no vote isn't progressive, it won't encourage the government to do more. If you think that the Lib party wants a no result so they can implement a better alternative, you've been deceived. There is no 'no, but because I want more action and a treaty' option. The yes will be the indicator of this, but a no will be taken as 'no action is needed' and 'we don't believe we need to recognise our country's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people'.

VOTE YES! 🖤💛❤️

[prettylittlelifeforms]

fuckin devastated

[buckevantommy]

The 2023 Australian Referendum results are in, and the answer is No. It should've been Yes. We need to do better, try again, and give a rightful Voice in parliament to Indigenous Australians. 

[...] Australia voted No, and did so conclusively. It was clear, 75 minutes into the counting, the referendum had failed. [...] It was a brutal end to a brutal campaign that exposed the deep societal rifts in Australia. It's also undeniable the campaign was bogged down with misinformation and allegations of racism, and that the result will leave a scar. 

"It's very clear that reconciliation is dead. A majority of Australians have said No to an invitation from Indigenous Australia with a minimal proposition to give us a bare say in matters that affect our lives, advice that doesn't need to be taken by the parliament." 

[...] The Voice did not divide people based on heritage or when they came to this country. It was an advisory body, with no special powers. It would've taken information and advice from local communities and presented it to parliament on issues relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. 

[...] overwhelmingly, in the booths were there were large indigenous populations, the answer was Yes. The defeat will be seen by Indigenous Advocates as a blow to what has been a hard-fought struggle to progress reconciliation and recognition in modern Australia, while First Nations people continue to suffer discrimination, poorer health, and worse economic outcomes. 

"We had two choices tonight: write another chapter in the history of reconciliation in this country, or fail a significant empathy test. And Australia, we failed that test." 

[...] The referendum failed because enough people allowed themselves to believe the worst. 

The way forward is unclear. There will be a time of reflection and of reckoning for all sides. But what we do know is that it does not rest on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to keep carrying the load. It is up to all of us, Yes or No, to reckon with our past in a clear-eyed way. And that work has to start now. 

[aivic-bleps]

Literally FUCK this country i hate it here.

[frogsinpotplants]

AUS REFERENDUM 2023

Resources/more info:

[tartlette1968]

The opinion polls were right, not that we had reason to doubt them.

It is hard to even feel this despair, let alone describe it.

We have two animals on our Coat Of Arms, the kangaroo and the emu, chosen because they don't walk backwards. Our national anthem belts out the words, "Advance Australia fair". Yet going forwards, moving, changing is always met with awful resistance. The referendum is just one more moment of needless caution.

Three fifths of the country rejected the proposed alteration to the Constitution, but it goes further than that. A portion of the "No" vote were voting no, no just to a Constitution change, but to the entire principle of the Voice.

In any case, the country has lost.

[dialogue-queered]

Australian Issues Primer

Comment: This is an open access article detailing the issues at stake in Australia's formal constitutional referendum on indigenous rights set for 14 October 2023.

Extract: With bleary eyes after a sleepless night, one of the Aboriginal leaders there described his "euphoria".

Indigenous people had just agreed to a consensus position on what we now know as the Uluru Statement from the Heart — a request for Australians to change our constitution.

They called it a simple plea to be heard, an idea they believed could repair the wounds of colonisation that run so deep. It took six years of rejection, diplomacy, and debate but now, on October 14, Australia will answer this question once and for all.

[cryptidwithaninternetconnection]

VOTE YES PLEASE!! I’m not Australian but if you are, please vote yes when you can!

For all my fellow Aussies remember, voting yes in the referendum quite literally means that Indigenous Australians will get a proper spot in parliament. If someone tells you to vote no they are racist, there is no reason why Indigenous Australians shouldn’t be allowed in parliament.

Vote Yes!

[claraameliapond]

The Indigenous Voice Referendum Australia 2023

Floored and devastated

repulsed at the racist selfishness of the no voters

It had NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM.

This is NOT who we are

Although it's a comforting narrative that no voters and conservatives are dying out - and will gradually have less and less pull

Firstly - It's too gradual to just wait it out

And Secondly- It's foolish to think that's only where these no votes are coming from

Younger less educated people are part of this too

Ignorant and arrogant - and selfish- that's what less education translates to.

This highlights, more than ever, how important it is to have strict policies in place legally for managing misinformation, fear mongering and propaganda spreading

We need laws about media monopolies and restricting or banning them altogether

Because one agenda from a multimillion dollar media monopoly cannot have majority access to inform a whole country. Especially because they were intentionally running interference with the simplest truth - they threw everything at it - spreading misinformation, blatant repulsive, violent lies - totally made up lies, not even remotely connected to what was being proposed. It's heartbreaking they could invent such lies and then spread those repulsive invented lies so fully and have people believe them.

And less educated people are always more vulnerable to propaganda: they believe hatred without a second thought. They don't fact check. They don't research. They don't make sure. Any excuse to flaunt their selfish racist self interest, against anyone else who might actually be more vulnerable, worse off.

However, That's the thing about this referendum - IT WASNT "US AGAINST THEM"

It was just : do we all agree that indigenous Australians should get to share information and advice with the government about how best to provide the care and facilities we already provide to them. So they work. Because they haven't been. So it would be a good use of money and then we can achieve permanent results and solutions for those issues and then move on, and do different things with that money. To actually move forward with this and not be stuck in stasis with things not improving.

That was literally all it was

It still is an issue now.

Don't loose hope

I'm still proud of all of the Yes voters- there were a good amount of us - and we will continue to turn the tide from ignorance and misinformation to the truth.

We've got to keep going 💪🏻 🙌🏻 👏🏻 🙏🏻

And now we have a more accurate idea of how to do that , and what needs to be fixed with people's understanding of this in our country. We can use this information to succeed

Ironically - doing exactly what the referendum was about : getting more accurate information to better help vulnerable communities of indigenous Australia.

But apparently, we've got to deal with the misinformed tantrum havers first - they make everything an "us against them" even when it literally wasn't. It doesn't affect anyone else. It could only have been positive. They make every issue an "us against them " even when it has literally nothing to do with them, because everything's a tantrum if it's not about them.

We've got accurate information now - just not about the people we were expecting : we know how to combat the racist minformation spreaders, and those who believed them.

What we need is :

Real limits and legal consequences on misinformation spreading, fear mongering and propaganda

Real limits on media monopolies and restrictions from letting them operate the way they do.

AND we do have to continue to combat this misinformation and propaganda whenever it is paraded near us. Respond with the truth, and make sure you ALWAYS RESPOND.

Don't let them think they're right.

Respond simply and calmly with the truth.

I'm sorry we have to do this but we do.

I don't want to be anywhere near those people, but if they identify themselves- we have to respond.

Respond and correct them.

Their idiocy can not and does not rewrite the truth. We are right and the truth of what this is, always was and what we need to do still exists

A few sources to begin to understand this:

A breakdown of who voted what where

Interpreting these results properly - this is well worth a read

I am looking forward to seeing the full count when it's ready. Make sure to look at those things - from Official sources.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO VOTED YES

I stand proudly with you on the side of truth. Empathy. Morality. Justice

We have a more accurate idea of what's going on now: let's get to work

Also thank you to MC HAMMER for supporting and encouraging and campaigning for people to vote yes. That was lovely.

It really was a very simple thing - the truth is still the truth and we will succeed

Love and strength to us all

By goodness we need it

Xxxx🤍🖤🧡❤🤍🖤🧡❤💗💖💜💕💕💓💗

My heart was so full when I voted yes - it's an obvious yes

And it still is

Because YES is the truth

It is what is needed.

Still.

And we will achieve it xxxxx

[t-jfh]

For some in Indigenous Australia, reconciliation can never be revived.

(ABC News: Emma Machan)

Is reconciliation really dead after the Voice to Parliament was voted down?

By Indigenous Affairs Editor, Bridget Brennan

ABC News Australia - 22 October 2023

•

•

Indigenous leaders who campaigned for Yes have released a statement pledging to fight for justice.

(Supplied)

‘Shameful victory’: Indigenous leaders’ bitter lesson from Voice campaign.

By Mike Foley

The Age - October 22, 2023

•

•

Indigenous leaders have written an open letter to Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after the Voice referendum was defeated.

(ABC News: Michael Franchi)

Indigenous leaders break their silence, call referendum defeat 'appalling and mean-spirited'.

By Indigenous Affairs Editor, Bridget Brennan

ABC News Australia - 22 October 2023

•

[kesarijournal]

The Tale of PM Albanese: A Masterclass in Political Irony

Ah, the political landscape of Australia, where promises are as abundant as kangaroos but far less likely to make a meaningful leap. Enter stage left, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the maestro of this tragicomedy that we call governance. ## The Man Who Would Be AccountableRemember the days when Albanese promised a government more transparent than a pane of glass? Ah, yes, those were the days…

[submalevolentgrace]

“Mob are still grieving and a lot of them are still, I think, traumatised by the whole year,” [Laura Thompson] says. “We woke up in a world where you go into a meeting room and look out and think 60% of these people voted that we shouldn’t have any say over our lives, and everything changed.” Thompson said Indigenous people have not had a chance to heal from the hurt of the result and experiences of the campaign. A year on, she says it’s important to talk about this pain and grief but also to keep pressure on governments to pursue treaty and truth-telling processes.

[holy-politics-batman]

How Peter Duton has consistently Voted in parliament

Spoiler: He hates you Not everything is terrible, but holy shit it gets bad and a lot of it is bad (Source at the bottom)

Voted for:

A citizenship test

A plebiscite on the carbon pricing mechanism (Remove the tax on carbon)

A same-sex marriage plebiscite (plebiscite means to get rid of)

An Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC)

Carbon Farming Initiative Amendment Bill 2014

Charging postgraduate research students fees

Civil celebrants having the right to refuse to marry same-sex couples

Compensating victims of overseas terrorism since the September 11 attack

Decreasing availability of welfare payments

Deregulating undergraduate university fees (Removing any restrictions on the amount that universities can charge students for tuition)

Drug testing welfare recipients

Getting rid of Sunday and public holiday penalty rates

Greater control over items brought into immigration detention centres

Having a referendum on whether to create an Indigenous Voice to Parliament (To be fair he also did recently have a trantrum because he didn't want to stand infrount of the Aboriginal flag, so)

Increasing eligibility requirements for Australian citizenship

Government administered paid parental leave

Increasing indexation of HECS-HELP debts (HECS-HELP is basically student loans)

Increasing state and territory environmental approval powers

Increasing the cost of humanities degrees (Humanities include: History, Geography, Philosophy, Religion, Citizenship, Economics, Business, ect)

Increasing the price of subsidised medicine

Prioritising religious freedom

Privatising government-owned assets

Putting welfare payments onto cashless debit cards (or indue cards) on a temporary basis as a trial

Recognising local government in the Constitution

Reducing the corporate tax rate

Senate electoral reform

Stopping people who arrive by boat from ever coming to Australia

Temporary Exclusion Orders

Temporary protection visas

The territories being able to legalise euthanasia

Turning back asylum boats when possible

A combined Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia

Banning mobiles and other devices in immigration detention

Increasing scrutiny of unions

Implementing refugee and protection conventions

Putting welfare payments onto cashless debit cards (or indue cards) on an ongoing basis

Privatising certain government services

Voluntary student union fees

Increasing funding for road infrastructure

Increasing the initial tax rate for working holiday makers to 19%

Increasing the Medicare Levy to pay for the National Disability Insurance Scheme

Making more water from Murray-Darling Basin available to use

The Coalition's new schools funding policy ("Gonski 2.0")

The Intervention in the Northern Territory

Voted against:

A carbon price

A minerals resource rent tax

A Royal Commission into Violence and Abuse against People with Disability

A transition plan for coal workers

Banning pay secrecy clauses

Capping gas prices

Carbon farming

Considering legislation to create a federal anti-corruption commission (procedural)

Considering motions on Gaza (2023-24) (procedural)

Criminalising wage theft

Decreasing the private health insurance rebate

Doctor-initiated medical transfers for asylum seekers

Ending illegal logging

Ending immigration detention on Manus Island

Extending government benefits to same-sex couples

Federal action on public housing

Federal government action on animal & plant extinctions

Increasing availability of abortion drugs

Increasing consumer protections

Increasing funding for university education

Increasing housing affordability

Increasing investment in renewable energy

Increasing legal protections for LGBTI people

Increasing marine conservation

Increasing penalties for breach of data

Increasing political transparency

Increasing protection of Australia's fresh water

Increasing restrictions on gambling

Increasing scrutiny of asylum seeker management

Increasing support for the Australian film and TV industry

Increasing support for the Australian shipping industry

Increasing the diversity of media ownership

Increasing trade unions' powers in the workplace

Increasing transparency of big business by making information public

Market-led approaches to protecting biodiversity

Net zero emissions by 2035

Re-approving/ re-registering agvet chemicals (Agvet chemicals protect crops and livestock)

Removing children from immigration detention

Reproductive bodily autonomy

Requiring every native title claimant to sign land use agreements

Restricting donations to political parties

Restricting foreign ownership

Same-sex marriage equality

Stem cell research

Stopping tax avoidance or aggressive tax minimisation

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)

The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme

The Paris Climate Agreement

Tobacco plain packaging

Transgender rights

Treating the COVID vaccine rollout as a matter of urgency

Mix

Reducing tax concessions for high socio-economic status

Increasing competition in bulk wheat export

Mostly Yes

Speeding things along in Parliament (procedural)

Unconventional gas mining

A character test for Australian visas

Increasing or removing the Government debt limit

Regional processing of asylum seekers

Mostly No

Increasing the age pension

Net zero emissions by 2050

Suspending the rules to allow a vote to happen (procedural)

Vehicle efficiency standards

Increasing support for rural and regional Australia

Letting all MPs or Senators speak in Parliament (procedural)

Source

https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/representatives/dickson/peter_dutton

[axvoter]

Blatantly Partisan Party Review XI (federal 2025): Gerard Rennick People First

Running where: in the House, half of the divisions in Queensland plus Farrer and Richmond in NSW and McEwen and Scullin in VIC; in the Senate, SA and WA in their own right, NSW (third candidate in Group I on joint ticket with HEART and Libertarians), QLD (lead candidate of Group G with running mate from Katter’s Australian Party), and VIC (lead candidate of Group O with running mate from HEART)

Reviews of the above-named micro-parties are forthcoming

Prior reviews: none, this is a new party

If you don’t know who Gerard Rennick is, your elderly relative who has brainrot from Facebook probably does. Rennick posts relentlessly there. And if a conspiracy theory exists, Rennick probably believes it. He is especially keen on conspiracy theories about the covid pandemic and loves to deny the reality of climate change.

So, who is Gerard Rennick? He was elected in 2019 as a Senator for Queensland, third on the LNP ticket. Now, when it comes to the Liberal/National Coalition, Queensland’s amalgamated Liberal National Party is probably the craziest (don’t discount NT’s Country Liberals, but the LNP has weight of numbers): this is the party that brought us the likes of Matt Canavan and George Christensen. The covid pandemic sent Rennick mad, as if he wasn’t already. He became a Facebook celebrity among cookers, posting or sharing content that opposed his own government’s actions to ameliorate the effects of the pandemic. In July 2023, the LNP had a moment of clarity and shunted Rennick out of a winnable position from their 2025 ticket, the eventual consequence of which is that Rennick quit the LNP in August 2024 and registered this party the next month.

Let’s see, then, what his party wants this year. Rennick is pro-Putin, which ought to be instantly discrediting. The party website goes to considerable lengths to present a more palatable veneer, but frankly it can largely be ignored. The “flexible childcare” policy just reduces the funding available for professional early childhood education services, the health policy is incoherent cooker madness, the policy to remove Fringe Benefits Tax is basically the spirit of Christopher Skase Boozy Lunches made flesh, and making universities pay the unpaid component of HECS debts of deceased students is frankly bizarre.

Unsurprisingly, People First is blatantly racist. They’re mad about Acknowledgements and Welcomes to Country, which is a sure sign of a person who needs to grow up and realise not everything is about them. Although they acknowledge that Australia is a nation of migrants, they think that “zero immigration would be ideal”. I guess at least their migrant candidates are honest in pulling up the ladder behind them. People First are especially mad about migrants from “radical nations” (no really, that’s their term), despite their own extreme viewpoints. They are mad that “foreigners” might own houses or other property in Australia, because we do love a panic about foreign (read as: Chinese) ownership in this country—of course they don’t bother to clarify how we define foreign vs local ownership. Could I be a foreign landowner because I am a Pākehā New Zealander by birth? No, Rennick is probably cool with me because I’m lily white. Are my Australian-born friends with Chinese names foreign owners? (there was a “Chinese-sounding names” controversy in NZ along similar lines)

It isn’t hard to pick out other crazy policies. For instance, People First wants a referendum to “enshrine Freedom of Speech in the Constitution” (capitalisation original). Why would we need that when we already have an implied freedom of political communication? I don’t think it’s worth taking seriously anything Rennick says, because his real views have long been presented on Facebook. He is a dangerous individual who should have no say in our parliament.

Recommendation: In the House, give Gerard Rennick People First a very low preference; in the Senate, give Gerard Rennick People First a weak or no preference.

Website: https://peoplefirstparty.au/