ANNIVERSARY OF ANOTHER AUSTRALIAN TRAGEDY

The defeat of what became known across Australia as “The Voice” referendum, a year ago, promises to remain a continuing painful memory for many among Australia’s Aboriginal communities. Its failure, in October 2023, or rather the failure of Australia’s political hierarchy, was not being capable of finding an acceptable resolution to the vexed question of achieving reconciliation with the country’s First Nations people. A meaningful reconciliation, through which the nation could at last begin to celebrate the central role played by the Aboriginal and Torres Islander peoples, our “First Nations People”, across this vast continent, almost from the dawn of time.

Mark Knight’s powerful cartoon says it all. It puts a decidedly Australian spin on the way Australians were asked to vote Yes or No in the failed “Voice to Parliament” referendum.

‘The Voice” — to be or not to be?

The story of the failure of the Voice referendum to get up nationally, and how it matches with a disturbing trend toward continuing polarisation of Australian politics in other, perhaps more strategic areas of issues confronting its people, forms the basis of this essay.

It was our so-called leadership class, both government and opposition, who failed to act positively and with at least a degree of conviction. Inability to work toward compromise, in order to find a resolution, understandable and therefore acceptable to most clear minded Australians. Instead, both sides of the political spectrum performed once…