As Australia moves toward January 26 this year, I do so with a heavier heart than usual. There are a few reasons for this. The history of January 26 is indelibly inked, yet what comes next remains a challenge. The result of the 2023 Indigenous Voice referendum, where Australia decided Aboriginal people should not be … Read more
The Voice referendum in Australia proposed a modest reform, one that would have given Indigenous Australians — the oldest continuous living people in the world – an independent voice to Parliament, as well as constitutional recognition. When it failed on October 14, in the words of Dr. Hannah McGlade, it confirmed that Australia remained a … Read more
Advertisement On Sunday, both metaphorically and literally, it all went silent. After – in the words of Indigenous woman Professor Marcia Langton – reconciliation was pronounced “dead,” Indigenous campaigners for the Voice to Parliament, who had seen their referendum defeated, announced a week of mourning. Yes23, the campaign supporting the Voice, called the 61-39 referendum result … Read more
Oceania | Society | Oceania Rather than understand the responsibility Australia has for its Indigenous population, both the Liberal and National parties sensed political opportunity in opposing the Voice. Advertisement It is an iron law of Australian politics that the country moves slowly. It is not opposed to change, but as an overall incredibly comfortable country it requires a … Read more
A man, right, waits as a woman drops her ballot into a box a polling place in Redfern as Australians cast their final votes in Sydney, Oct. 14, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File Advertisement Australia’s Voice to Parliament Referendum went down in flames in the October 14 vote. An overwhelming majority of Australians voted … Read more
Advertisement The result of Australia’s first referendum in 24 years, taking place on October 14, may mean a modest change to the constitution granting First Nations peoples – the oldest continuously living culture in the world – recognition and an advisory Voice to Parliament. But the measure very well may fail. Some of this is … Read more
Oceania | Politics | Oceania The last federal election was a vote against instability, not for any great positive vision. The public resistance to the proposed Voice to Parliament reflects that dynamic. Advertisement The last federal election in Australia seemed to create a shift in Australian politics. Not only was it a comfortable win for the Labor Party, but the … Read more
Advertisement The “Massachusetts of Australia” is how former Australian Prime Minister John Howard once described the state of Victoria. His comment, a criticism mired deeply in his unwavering commitment to the increasingly conservative Liberal Party, was aimed at a state that has had a center-left Labor government for all but four years of the 21st … Read more