Couldn't find an Australian thread, but there's a New Zealand one so I think I can justify this indulgence!
Those who listen to the Rest is Politics might have heard a bit about the indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum that's happening in Australia today. It's a single question asking us if we support recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the original inhabitants via a Voice to parliament. The idea of a Voice was proposed by First Nations people in a document known as the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which was the culmination of a decade's worth of consultation with indigenous groups across the country, the largest consensus building exercise in First Nations history, at least that we know of post colonisation. Currently First Nations people are not specifically recognised in the constitution, a gesture which around 90% of Australians would be on board with, but the decision was made to combine that question with the Voice proposal as the latter was seen as meaningful, material change towards bridging the shocking gap between indigenous and other Australians in metrics like life expectancy, income, education and incarceration.
The Voice proposal enjoyed strong majority support from its conception in 2017 until early this year (something like 59% overall and >80% among FNP). The previous Liberal National Party government (Tories) refused to call a referendum on the subject, with its relatively progressive erstwhile prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, falsely claiming it would be a third chamber of parliament equal in status to the house of representatives and senate, even though it would be an advisory body explicitly excluded from any legislative authority. When the Labor (Labour) party regained power late last year, it included a voice referendum as one of the top priorities in its manifesto, and took a clear position of Yes.
The Liberals didn't immediately put their weight behind the No campaign, having been pummelled at the election and knowing that the numbers were behind Yes. But their new leader, Peter Dutton, an ex-cop from Queensland, the most right wing state in the country, set about undermining it by planting seeds of doubt. The early tactic was to claim a deliberate withholding of detail, knowing full well that the constitution is a set of broad brush principles, and that detail comes from legislation. Nonetheless, this started to play well among more cautious conservative types. Over time the seeds of alarm were planted. Suddenly the Voice was not a result of FNP consensus building, it was a ploy by the Labor party to both destroy parliamentary democracy, to force the white man into subservience, but bizarrely also was a meaningless load of virtue signalling woke crap that FNP don't even want and is in fact another example of the whitefella forcing his vision upon the bkackfella. Whatever combination works for each individual, the effect was profound, with support for the Voice plummeting. This emboldened Dutton to mandate a No platform to the Liberals, forcing moderate representatives out of cabinet or out of the party altogether. The numbers continued to decline, with latest polls indicating 36% Yes and 57% No. The prime minister already appears to be looking at the aftermath.
So, I will trudge to the polls today, vote Yes, and just hope the end result is less humiliating than I'm expecting. The one shining light in all this is that the Liberal party has not profited from their opportunism. They have dealt a blow to Labor, but indications are that the electorate are not impressed by this further lurch to the right, a lurch which brought them undone as recent elections have been marked by pro-business but socially progressive "teal" independents wiping them out from their wealthy suburban strongholds. They're becoming more and more a party of rural cranks, and that won't work in a heavily urbanised country where the working classes are not struggling (and thus seduced by resentment politics) to the same degree as other western democracies.
