Australian Electoral Commission national referendum 2023 polling places have now closed and ballot papers are beginning to be counted.
The Virtual Tally Room is now online at:
https://tallyroom.aec.gov.au/ReferendumNationalResults-29581.htm
Showing posts with label national referendum 2023. Show all posts
Showing posts with label national referendum 2023. Show all posts
Saturday 14 October 2023
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Friday 13 October 2023
Two perspectives on how the ugly truths of Australia's journey to nationhood still shape our society, as well our individual and collective response to the proposal for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Voice to Parliament
For the reader's consideration......
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The Saturday Paper, 7 October 2023:
John Hewson
The enduring stain of the White Australia policy
The White Australia policy stands out as probably the most significant blemish on this country’s national character and unity, as well as its global reputation, with continuing consequences today.
It has been said that latent racism, carrying echoes of White Australia, persists across the country and all walks of life. We have seen it emerge at football games and other events. Politicians have been known “to play the race card” when they believe that appealing to prejudice will afford them some political advantage.
In light of Australia’s colonial history, it should come as no surprise that race would become a dominant undercurrent in the public discourse about the upcoming referendum, with the “No” case appealing to those who believe the White Australia-era Constitution should not be amended. How else can we make sense of many of the misrepresentations and claims of opponents of the Voice to Parliament? How are we to understand John Howard’s call for people “to maintain the rage”, if not for its racial connotation?
Our Constitution was drafted by protagonists of White Australia, strongly supported by zealots such as Alfred Deakin, who became our second prime minister.
First Australians were not recognised as it was assumed they were a “dying race”. Among the first pieces of legislation passed after Federation was the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, which was initiated just nine sitting days after the Duke of York officially opened the Australian parliament. The law’s aim was essentially to ensure a predominantly British population, by restricting non-white, and particularly Asian, immigration and enabling the deportation of undesirable migrants. It is difficult to understand by what standards their desirability would have been judged, given the British settlements were primarily penal colonies.
I would hazard a guess that Pearson’s address, unlike a couple of others on this theme of the referendum, will be studied in schools in the future. It was a speech for the ages. It mattered.
Aboriginal Australians were also targeted. A range of policies was directed at so-called protection and assimilation of Aboriginal people into white society, one of which was the removal of Aboriginal children from their families and culture. By 1912, the government was working to remove all people of mixed Indigenous and non-Indigenous descent from reservations across Australia, with the goal of forced assimilation into the white community. It is not too much of a stretch to claim that these policies were designed collectively to destroy Aboriginal society.
As Barry Jones has pointed out in this publication, at the time of the arrival of the First Fleet, Australia’s Indigenous communities had well-established traditions and practices, art and mythology, spoke roughly 500 languages and dialects, and made and traded tools, weapons and goods. So much of this was lost in the ensuing violence and generations of repression and neglect that followed. Non-Indigenous Australians still have so much to learn from First Australians about land and river and water management, among other things.
The initial focus of immigration on Britain was subsequently widened to southern and eastern Europe, to the Middle East and just a few Asian countries. After World War II there was an attempt to re-emphasise the “favoured” British immigrants, with the Assisted Passage Migration, or “ten-pound Pom”, scheme. This program invited Britons to come to work in Australia to help meet the country’s postwar industrial development and infrastructure needs.
The White Australia policy was unwound in a number of steps, starting with the Holt government’s migration review in 1966, which shifted the focus of the program to migrant skills and their capacity to contribute to the country’s priorities. In 1973, the Whitlam government formally renounced the policy and shifted the focus to multiculturalism.
However, a racial dimension to immigration policy was raised again by then opposition leader John Howard in the 1980s, when he called for a slowdown in Asian immigration, and again with the arrival of Pauline Hanson on the political scene, in her maiden speech to parliament in 1996 and subsequent statements about Muslims.
These attitudes are at odds with the fact Australia has become probably the most successful and tolerant multiracial, multiethnic, multireligious society in the world – the envy of many. It is a tragedy that our nation hasn’t come to terms with its history and built on a recognition of the world’s longest continuous civilisation, with 65,000 years of history. We cannot conceive of the vastness of the opportunity that is being lost through this myopic, frightened governance. If the referendum fails, the world will see we have missed this opportunity.
For many years I have travelled widely for both business and academia, and it has always troubled me greatly that I am so often questioned about whether this country still upholds the White Australia policy. This is still a common perception, and its persistence should bother us as a nation.
In 1967, when I was a student at Sydney University, there was no significant presence of Aboriginal people. Having been taught nothing about Indigenous history in high school, my only awareness of Aboriginal issues was some knowledge of the 1965 Freedom Ride that was designed to bring to the attention of the public the extent of racial discrimination in Australia. This publicity provided something of a basis for the 1967 referendum that finally led to the counting of Aboriginal people in the census.
I would like to imagine that in 2023 our university campuses are more engaged, and that the obvious need for First Australians to be properly recognised and heard is readily embraced and understood, without being swayed by the fear and hatred propagated by many in the “No” camp.
The most disturbing point in this campaign for me has been the vilification of people such as distinguished academic Marcia Langton, who had the courage and good sense to draw attention to the racial undercurrents of the “No” campaign. It was not racist of her to point this out. She was stating facts. Yet many who criticised her had been running a fear campaign claiming that the Voice would racially divide our nation. The treatment of her was abhorrent and emphasises why the country so badly needs to come to grips with its history and acknowledge the need for proper recognition.
The recent speech of leading “Yes” campaigner Noel Pearson to the National Press Club hit the mark. He spoke eloquently about his vision for the future, a better future. He laid out what sort of country we should aspire to be.
He rejected the argument from the opposing camp that the Voice could divide Australia by race: “We’re not a separate race – we’re humans,” he said. “It’s just that we are Indigenous. And you go to some parts of the world and indigenous people are blond and blue-eyed. This is not about race. This is about us being the original peoples in the country.”
His comments contrasted sharply with those of Nyunggai Warren Mundine in the same forum the previous day, in which the “No” campaign leader described the Uluru Statement from the Heart as a “declaration of war”.
“Only love can move us now,” Pearson said. “It’s the love of home. Our Australian home is the source of this love.”
I would hazard a guess that Pearson’s address, unlike a couple of others on this theme of the referendum, will be studied in schools in the future. It was a speech for the ages. It mattered.
In an important sense, the referendum provides an opportunity to clearly move beyond our White Australia past by responding positively to the wishes of First Australians – that is, their request as to how best to be recognised, as expressed in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Giving them an advisory Voice can also help our leadership do better than the failed attempts of the past to develop effective policies to deal with Indigenous disadvantage.
This is not about guilt but a positive expression of love and unity for our national future.
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on October 7, 2023 as "The stain of White Australia".
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ABC News, 7 October 2023:
Laura Tingle
A usual plaudit for a book is that a reader "couldn't put it down". But a plaudit for David Marr's new book, Killing for Country, which documents his family's history as professional killers of Aborigines in NSW and Queensland in the mid-1800s, is that it is one you have to keep putting down.
It's not just the brutality of the large-scale killings Marr documents that requires regular pauses, but the voices of white people discussing it — either in the most cold-blooded pragmatic terms, or in terms of horror.
The chilling fact is that, no matter what was actually known or protested about at the time, the killings didn't stop.
Marr's history documents events which were not just cases of rounding up Aboriginal people accused of crimes, or events that just happened in the early years of white settlement, but the systemic shooting and poisoning of people living on land they had been living on for thousands of years, or who may have adapted to living peaceably on stations, or even in working in towns.
It continued at least into the 1890s.
The immediate horror of the story clashes horrendously with our image of ourselves, and with the lofty ambitions of those who oversaw federation, and the writing of our Constitution, as the former chief justice of the High Court, Robert French, observed in a speech to the National Press Club this week.
Noting resonances with the current referendum debate, French quoted some of the opposition to federation and the constitution at the time, with one contributor observing that "the people aren't ready to federate; they don't know what it means; [and] their leaders and their newspapers are not brainy enough or honest enough to try to teach them what it means".
He quoted the then premier of Queensland, Samuel Griffith, observing that "there is no doubt that here, as everywhere, there will be timid men who are afraid of launching into something new; but when was ever a great thing achieved without risking something".
French observed: "The Australian spirit evoked by the 'don't know, vote no' slogan is a poor shadow of the spirit which drew up our Constitution. It invites us to a resentful, uninquiring passivity."
Linking the past with the future
The headlines from the former chief justice's speech focused on his affirmation that, in his view, the Voice posed no constitutional or legal risks.
But his speech also manages to link up, in a way which has often not successfully occurred, the past and the future embedded in the Voice debate.
"It does not require a black armband view of history to conclude that colonisation did not bring unalloyed benefits to our First Peoples," he said. "Nor does it require rocket science logic to conclude that we live today with the cross-generational effects of that collision."
Whatever your views on the idea of the Voice, it is not just the ugly racism exposed by the debate about it — which has seen Indigenous people on both sides of the debate subjected to abuse and death threats — it is the spectacular failure, hypocrisy and opportunism that has been on display on occasions among our politicians that has already marked it as another ugly chapter in our history.
The willingness of some sections of the media to perpetuate misinformation, and of other sections of the media to get lost in attempts at false balance, has made nigh on impossible a reasonably rational debate about what a permanent advisory body to the parliament and executive, whose actual remit would be defined and controlled by the parliament, might mean both symbolically and practically to Indigenous Australians.
Once again, it seems our leaders and newspapers "are not brainy enough or honest enough to try to teach Australians what it means".
And this is not because those leaders didn't know.
Conflict over how to help Indigenous people
French quotes John Howard — now a vocal campaigner against the Voice — from 2007, saying:
"I believe we must find room in our national life to formally recognise the special status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the first peoples of our nation. We must recognise the distinctiveness of Indigenous identity and culture and the right of Indigenous people to preserve that heritage. The crisis of Indigenous social and cultural disintegration requires a stronger affirmation of Indigenous identity and culture as a source of dignity, self-esteem and pride."
Now, Howard says, people should vote no to "maintain the rage" against the Voice, which he says would create "a new cockpit of conflict about how to help Indigenous people".
Conflict over how to help people — if conflict was what the Voice produced — is apparently a worse outcome than possibly addressing "the crisis of Indigenous identity and culture".
Howard's self-described political love child, former prime minister Tony Abbott — who has always claimed a special interest in, and affinity for, Indigenous people — said this week that, rather than pursue the Voice, "we should end the separatism, which has bedevilled Indigenous policy for many decades now".
"Aboriginal people are fine Australians," he told ABC RN, "and they should be encouraged to integrate into the mainstream of our society."
What "integration" means is as unclear now as it was when Abbott advocated the "mainstreaming" of Indigenous services when he was prime minister.
And if there is any model that currently defines how Indigenous policy is executed at the federal level, it is the one imposed on us by Abbott as prime minister when he insisted on bringing Aboriginal affairs into the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet — a department with no experience in service delivery.
Blocking change, no matter what the truth is
No campaigners regularly now rage about some mysterious bureaucracy which allegedly worthlessly chews up billions of dollars in wasted funding to Indigenous people.
That would be the National Indigenous Australians Agency, the body set up by the Morrison government and which morphed out of the structure set up in PM&C by Abbott.
The Coalition also appointed an Indigenous Advisory Council "to provide advice to the Government on Indigenous affairs, [focusing] on practical changes to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people".
The inaugural, government-appointed chair of the council — which sounds like it had a job pretty much identical to that proposed for the Voice — was another prominent No campaigner, Warren Mundine.
That the policies that many of the prominent politicians leading the No campaign are actually campaigning against come from their own side of politics, or are based on their own previous statements, and their own policy legacy, is just one more depressing aspect of what has proved a very flawed debate.
Coalition figures from Howard to Peter Dutton insist their difficulty is not with constitutional recognition but with the specific proposal for the Voice.
Robert French on Friday reflected that the very act of recognition proposed by the referendum "is the creation of the Voice".
"I do agree with John Howard that recognition in the Constitution is a strong affirmation of Indigenous identity and culture," he said.
"A stronger and practical affirmation will give content to that recognition by the creation of the constitutional voice to Parliament and the Executive Government," he said
After many months of bitter debate, his words remind us that we are back at a point where it seems that, no matter what the truth may be, we will not let it lead to any change.
Laura Tingle is 7.30's chief political correspondent.
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National Referendum polling places open on Saturday 14 October 2023 in the Clarence Valley Local Government Area
Polling place locations for referendum voting on Saturday, 14 October 2023 open at 8am and close dead on 6pm.
If you are unsure of the nearest polling place where you can vote tomorrow please check Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) look up tool at:
https://www.aec.gov.au/referendums/voting.htm#start.
City, Town & Village Polling Place Locations in Clarence Valley - alphabetical order
Chatsworth Island Hall
17 Chatsworth Road, Chatsworth Island.
Copmanhurst & District War Memorial Hall
61 Grafton Street, Copmanhurst.
Coutts Crossing Coronation Hall
7 Armidale Road, Coutts Crossing.
Cowper Public School
74 Clarence Street, Cowper.
Glenreagh School of Arts Hall
62 Coramba Street, Glenreagh.
Grafton High School
97 Mary Street, Grafton.
Joan Muir Community Centre
194 Turf Street, Grafton.
Grafton TAFE (Library)
Entry Via Pound St, Grafton
Gulmarrad Public School
466 Brooms Head Road, Gulmarrad.
Harwood Island Public School
Morpeth Street, Harwood Island.
Iluka Community Hall
54 Spencer Street, Iluka.
Junction Hill Play Group
32 Pine Street, Junction Hill.
Lawrence Public School
64-70 High Street, Lawrence.
Maclean Public School
25 Woodford Street, Maclean.
Palmers Island Public School
9 School Road, Palmers Island.
South Grafton Public School
24 Vere Street, South Grafton.
South Grafton Presbyterian Connect Church
69 Wharf St, South Grafton.
St Joseph’s Primary School South Grafton
Hyde St, South Grafton.
Tucabia Community Hall
28 Clarence Street, Tucabia.
Ulmarra Public School
2476 Big River Way, Ulmarra.
Wooli Hall
92 Main Street, Wooli.
Woombah Bush Fire Brigade building
40 Middle Street-Iluka Road, Woombah.
Yamba Public School
39 Angourie Road, Yamba.
St. James Catholic Primary School
1 Carrs Drive Yamba.
Yamba TAFE Connected Learning Centre
6 Roberts Close, off Treelands Drive, Yamba.
NOTE:
Baryulgil and Dundurrabin voters appear to have no polling booths in their immediate areas on Saturday and need to use AEC look up tool to find nearest polling place.
Thursday 12 October 2023
So has Australia been 'googling' for information about the proposed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Voice to Parliament.
'Did you google it?'
Google Trends Category: Online Communities
Google Trends Category: News
So has Australia been seeking information from the Internet concerning the proposed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Voice to Parliament?
The short answer appears to be not always, not often and by too few people.
The Google Trends graphs below covering the period between 16-22 October 2022 and 1-7 October 2023.
NOTE: Numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means there was not enough data for this term.
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Tuesday 10 October 2023
Five days out from the Australian 2023 national referendum *WARNING this post contains examples of offensive language*
As Australia reaches five days out from the 2023 national referendum on including in its foundational Constitution the provision for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Voice to Parliament - for the record and in no particular order a window on the public debate via X/Twitter.
In which those supporting the "No" position chose to repeat political lies, untruths, deliberate errors of fact, conspiracy theories and debunked urban myths, while Indigenous voices are speaking their truth sometimes with an edge of humour and "Yes" supporters struggling to be polite, on occasion failing but also displaying quirky humour, made their point:
PSA warning for mob: the polls are absolutely feral… vote but be prepared.
— Larissa Baldwin-Roberts (@Riss_Bundjalung) October 6, 2023
Just run the gauntlet to absentee vote
— Gomeroi (@AmyCreighton123) October 5, 2023
Redneck racist to the right and YT saviours to the left
And 1% of us FN voters stuck in the middle with you #Referendum2023
Newsflash paddy, NO voters couldn’t give a stuff what Dutton or Clive or ANY ‘celebrity ‘ thinks or does on The Voice. we made up our minds to vote NO as soon as the referendum was announced . this ISNT left vs right or labor vs liberal you clueless moron #VoteNo
— Paddo 🇦🇺 🏇🏏🎣⛳️🐕🐈🐐🐓🦆🐂 (@padders001) October 7, 2023
“As public debate on the voice referendum fuels hate speech and discriminatory rhetoric, non-Indigenous Australians hold a responsibility to show empathy, respect and care” https://t.co/7Cv5av8rKo
— First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria (@firstpeoplesvic) September 29, 2023
Noel Pearson schools Liberal Dan Tehan on why legislation for #TheVoice is supposed to be drafted after the referendum, as with former referendums, accusing him of “conflating the creation of legislation with the adoption of a constitutional referendum”💥#QandA #Yes23 pic.twitter.com/19nUvy8g0c
— stranger (@strangerous10) October 2, 2023
Katherine Murphy calls out Dutton & the No campaign’s “deliberate” strategy for “conflict” & hits the nail on the head on the struggle for reconciliation through a Voice
— stranger (@strangerous10) October 7, 2023
“If racism sets the standard for what we can & cannot do in this country, we’re in a bad place” #Insiders pic.twitter.com/fNLzhiJDhS
The Voice itself is not divisive.
— Peter Wicks (@madwixxy) October 8, 2023
Divisive people have ensured that the debate to achieve one is divisive.#auspol https://t.co/CIfnJ47ARW
Question. Is there any evidence of bare-faced, damaging and outrageous lies coming from anyone in the #VoteYES camp?
— MFW (@MFWitches) October 6, 2023
We don’t mean info which may be inadvertently misrepresented, but something like the (now deleted) tweet below which is an outright and deliberate lie and is… pic.twitter.com/HQwBuFQAhJ
Almost all woketard elites hiding behind locked replies.
— Aborigine supremacy is racist. (@Tobaccotime) September 19, 2023
Woketard elites hiding their Yes signs up high.
25 days until we destroy their plan to make aborigines the constitutional master race.
Looks like the woketards have never been more on the ropes. https://t.co/ClNwgCEzWp
Senator Michaelia Cash at the Liberals for No event against the Indigenous voice to parliament in Perth @australian pic.twitter.com/tTkuL1WwQ4
— Paige Taylor (@paigeataylor) August 20, 2023
Vote NO and demand the details - A bit of perspective
— Frank DAY (@FrankDA28404970) October 8, 2023
We already have the Voice: • 3,278 Aboriginal corporations • 243 Native title bodies • 48 Land councils • 35 Regional councils • 122+ Aboriginal agencies • 3 Advisory bodies • 145 Health Organisations • 11 Ind Fed MPs
To the Australian people, young and old.
— Patrick Dodson (@SenatorDodson) September 3, 2023
I have lived through many of these extraordinary moments in this country.
The Voice is now our moment.
Vote Yes.#VoteYes23 #VoteYesAustralia
pic.twitter.com/OxrzS7r1EP
First colonisers of Australia were Macassans not Aboriginals. Dutch were amongst the first Europeans to discover Western Australia, French discovered Southern Australia & Tasmania,& English Eastern Australia. So do contemporary Aussies have to pay rent & reparations to them? https://t.co/uE2nkWmDqw
— Jacked Off (@Jack53596930) March 11, 2023
Like most migrants who came to Australia worked their asses off to give themselves and their family a better life.
— Roller (@roller2426) August 4, 2023
So when the inner city globalist puppet aboriginals want us to pay the rent, can we charge a service fee with interest on improvements made to "their" land?
The progressive No vote has been a key part of the broader No Campaign, and Tarneen Onus Brown of the Blak Sovereignty movement, who is now an advocate for Yes, tells us how much damage they think has already been done by the No camp. pic.twitter.com/SnEVlyTyRl
— The Project (@theprojecttv) October 3, 2023
Wow 😳 doubling down.
— ValGlass🇦🇺 (@AussieVal10) October 5, 2023
Ray says “if you don’t know, vote no” is an ignorant statement. He said to go find out…but find out from whom?
The details are being kept secret. No one knows what they are agreeing to until it passes.
I DON’T TRUST POLITICIANS!#VoteNO23Australia pic.twitter.com/31TGtY5hoY
“Despite being one of this country's shortest-serving Prime Ministers, Tony Abbott inflicted more damage to Indigenous affairs and to our communities than most others.
— Dr Tracy Westerman AM (@TracyWesterman) October 8, 2023
“It is an insult to all Australian people that someone who failed so drastically continues to be given media… https://t.co/XbNpC8lLEh
Noel Pearson believes all people of European origin are white cunts, in contrast I do not feel the same about all Aborigines, however I do single him out as a black cunt. #VoteNO
— Vote No to the racist TREATY. (@ABiologicalMale) October 4, 2023
There are none so blind as those who will not see. Albanese is using the plight of Aboriginal people as a tool, nothing more, to divide our nation with the false belief that those who want a united country with the same rights for all people are racist. That is a hideous lie.!!
— Ron Jones (@RoJone252) October 8, 2023
Once again I would like to thank the Cook government for their contribution to the NO campaign.
— Despicable Meme (@pugnamstulti) October 8, 2023
It was a great working model of how the voice would operate in real world terms.
Showing us all the greed and extortion demonstrated by aboriginal activists as soon as they smelt power
They are line all of us - migrants to this land or born of migrants. We all have a voice - some louder than others - a yes vote will not change Aboriginal lives - they like all of us have to choose a better version of ourselves. Take responsibility. #VoteNo
— Filepe Lagos (@filepel) October 8, 2023
immutable land title is a fundamental right in Aussie. Under aboriginal land claims freehold title cannot be breached. However under the VOICE the attached map shows the break up of the country and the aboriginals owners of every inch. Aboriginal elite want you to pay rent pic.twitter.com/NV1ssCGwzV
— Baron of Burleigh (@burrosavic) April 10, 2023
When it matters most, Australians show up for each other. Vote Yes! Let’s do this Australia! ✌🏾 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/zQrUUl959W
— Professor Dr Megan Davis (@mdavisqlder) October 6, 2023
Yes Yes Yes it's a UN plot, so vote NO.https://t.co/BkbT1InBc8
— Bill Koutalianos (@NoDirectAction) October 4, 2023
Thomas Mayor is a fake Aboriginal, now worth millions thanks to NTG ALP CM Gunner , Fyles & Maritime Union colluding with ALBO for 6 years - Australia’s Aboriginal Money Laundering Unit is alive & well as Australia is no longer a democracy. #voteno https://t.co/16bMCQwa0v
— Jane Davies (@JaneDav97215588) October 7, 2023
i don’t want anyone’s pity, money, backyards, regrets or apologies.
— Sana Nakata (@DrSanaNakata) October 6, 2023
we know what we are doing. we have always done it.
we know the place where the stars meet the seas. it is where we are free. it is where we once lived & it is there we are determined to live again. pic.twitter.com/TJl2BYu80s
Today we find out that Ray Martin is an Aboriginal , because of Bertha four generations ago.
— steven (@nogulagsagain) October 7, 2023
This means Ray’s kids , a multi millionaire, will not have to pay HECS, get free dental, will get into Uni easier and get housing loans at 1.5%.
Your kids will get none of the above. pic.twitter.com/tvc4wbS8Sh
Newsflash paddy, NO voters couldn’t give a stuff what Dutton or Clive or ANY ‘celebrity ‘ thinks or does on The Voice. we made up our minds to vote NO as soon as the referendum was announced . this ISNT left vs right or labor vs liberal you clueless moron #VoteNo
— Paddo 🇦🇺 🏇🏏🎣⛳️🐕🐈🐐🐓🦆🐂 (@padders001) October 7, 2023
If we had all these backyards we supposed to be after then geez we wouldn't need a voice 🤣
— Gomeroi (@AmyCreighton123) October 6, 2023
If Australians are stupid enough to vote in the Voice , they deserve to pay reparations, rent on the land they own , pay for access to beaches and parks ,have an unelected panel of Aboriginals dictating public policy.
— Dragon Heart (@nichols_ge41345) October 5, 2023
It's all in the Uluru statement that this is the future.
This PM is planning to divide Australia, same as Democratic Israel n facist Palestine...vote NO TO DIVIDING AUSTRALIA INTO FACIST VS DEMOCRACY..WE WILL END UP LIKE ISRAEL. PALESTINEIS BACKED BY IRAN AND RUSSIA. VOTE NO TO DIVISION BY FACIST VOICE N PM
— Carmie (@Powell4Carmel) October 8, 2023
Albo Voice-Treaty
— bill/sparow (@BillSparow1) September 16, 2023
Do you want to pay Aboriginals rent on your property? pic.twitter.com/ewZ4S9zgaI
When I voting #Yes23 in Ballina, some old, middle class white bloke who looked like he was doing just fine on franking credits sidled up to me outside the polling booth and tried to thrust a Vote No pamphlet in my face. It took all my self control not to knee him in the balls. 🤬
— 💧 Johny Miller (@jmil400) October 7, 2023
Babbling of more lies dribbling from the mouth of a snake-oil salesman on a crusade to divide Our Nation. His legacy will be that of a PM striving to insert Apartheid into Our Constitution. His greater concern is how Australia will be viewed on the world platform. 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/gGnlaD2w1q
— Al Swearengen (@LarryWa01884739) October 8, 2023
It is racist, you are racist , we all want a united Australia, this is the most divisive disgusting referendum in our history. By all means vote how you like, it is called living in a democratic society, but you are racist if you vote to divide our country by race
— Equerry123456 (@equerry123456) October 8, 2023
My heart aches tonight for my dear family and friends in the Yaegl, Bundjalung and Gumbaynggirr nations as charlatan @KevinHoganMP actively fights against your desire to be heard, to be seen, to be recognised. This letterbox drop is horrific. What a deceitful, divisive fiend. pic.twitter.com/Uj5IoeqKxZ
— Mason Hell-Cat (@masonhellcat) September 12, 2023
Reparations, separate state/parliament, reparations, rent, land back.
— Prisoner DJ Trump (@dedputinsociety) October 7, 2023
Who do you think pays that rent, reparations? Whose land do they want to take back
That is radical, it is divisive and because of that this evil referendum will fail
I love Aussie TikTok calling BS on the Sunday Tele and their No campaign front page exclusive of "polling with no source and admission of minuscule sample so it's not legit anyway" (cough, cough) Love it! #VoteYes
— Professor Dr Megan Davis (@mdavisqlder) October 8, 2023
Get serious
— zabsteroz (@Zabsteroz) July 26, 2023
For a start two of the key Voice promoters are more non Aboriginal or not at all Aboriginal
And the Voice will usher in Reparations, rent, tax breaks you name it
Why should non aboriginals pay rent to other non aboriginals? Tick a boxers claiming money meant for ATSI
You have to be kidding there has been so much animosity from the yes camp to those who are going to vote no
— adriana (@moonlightami) October 5, 2023
starting from the Prime Minister who called the No voters chicken little Pearson. Calling as white cunts, including others and let’s not forget mayo and what he said on…
If you are confused or don’t understand “the voice” vote this week, Google it! Vote informed ya legends xox pic.twitter.com/d8InIoOgJP
— Tom Cardy (@Tomycardy) October 7, 2023
On prepoll today lots of good vibes, #YES voters and some very strange NO voters.
— Ben Davison (@Ben_Davison1) October 6, 2023
Including one woman who didn’t take a flyer from my colleague, Dale, and when I said “Fair enough, have a nice day.” Turned around to yell “And I’m not a racist!”
So we were like.. pic.twitter.com/dRBaE66HJ9
“It’s called a fair go mate… yeah” It’s that simple. Vote Yes for a fair go on October 14! #VoteYes #VoiceToParliament #auspol #UluruStatement #VoteNo #Yes23 pic.twitter.com/xkk8hxLuYX
— eddie synot (@EddieSynot) September 30, 2023
This is what yes looks like in 95 languages. Yes in English and in 94 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander living languages.
— Dr Liz Allen (@DrDemography) October 4, 2023
The colours reflect the Torres Strait Islander flag. #Yes23 #VoiceToParliament (image credit: Paul Girrawah House) pic.twitter.com/Z4mmc4qbP2
Hi from Hobart! Why does a tiny state like Tasmania get an equal number of Senators as bigger states like Vic & NSW? Cos our Constituion guarantees the historic political communities, the former colonies, a fair & equal Voice in the system - even the very small ones! This… pic.twitter.com/XvbVwYlFGj
— Shireen Morris (@ShireenMorrisMs) October 7, 2023
Monday 9 October 2023
Saturday 7 October 2023
Monday 2 October 2023
"The Voice" Referendum State of Play 2023: Lower Clarence Valley
In 2023 there have only been a handful of letters to the "Clarence Valley Independent" editor published online to date concerning the proposed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Voice to Parliament.
Here are the two most recent......
Clarence Valley Independent online:
The quiet voice
September 27, 2023 -
Ed,
In the lead up to the referendum, we’re hearing a lot of controversy. The quieter voices get less airplay. Yet these are the important voices.
Boots on the ground Larrakia Elder Aunty Bilawara Lee is one such quiet voice. She says:
“The Voice gives us a platform and a way forward. This referendum isn’t about politics or constitutions or governments or legislation – it came from us, not from them.
It’s about how do we keep our kids at school? How do we fight the scourge of domestic violence, suicide, and poor mental health?
How do we stop repeating this same terrible cycle, decade after decade?
We’re not asking for money; we’re not asking for your backyards. We want recognition and acknowledgment; we want to be included.
Some people say to me “You’re an elder, why don’t you fix this problem.”
Well, we need to have a seat at the table. Let me have a say and bring our suggested solutions to these major issues.”
How to support the quiet voices? By voting Yes.
Shakti Burke, Maclean
Understanding the Voice
September 20, 2023 -
Ed,
I was unaware of how a Voice to Parliament would be implemented and have read as much as I can find on the question of the referendum and now have a better understanding.
The terms of reference, size, mode of election for the Voice will be determined by the parliament not by the prime minister. This does make it fairly clear why as yet we have not been given details of how it would be implemented.
Since the Albanese government does not have a majority in both houses of parliament, the composition and function of the Voice will require negotiation and compromise, in which Mr Dutton and members who are advocating a ‘No’ vote will be able play a constructive role in the make up, size, mode of election and terms of reference for the Voice to Parliament. This includes our Federal Member Kevin Hogan who recently claimed he is concerned about who is on the Voice and how they are chosen to be on the Voice etc.
Hopefully as the next few weeks go by, we will gain more of any understanding of this process and less vitriol and negativity on such an important question.
Annie Dorrian, Iluka
There are also events like this one on Sunday, 1 October 2023, at Pilot Hill, Yamba.....
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Photo: Maiara Skarheim, Look Right Productions
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| Photographer not identified |
Video by Frankie Belle Parker
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