Some interesting data analysis here. I’ll pose the same question as the author:
…by majority vote, Australians have made clear that a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament is not how they want to respond to these crises.
An urgent question emerges — what is?
Probably hard to determine but I’d love to see proportion of no voters vs Murdoch news viewership. I feel like every other correlation could probably be tied to that variable.
I didn’t see a single No ad on television. Yes ads were everywhere though, all over tv (murdoch channels included) and even youtube.
Well I didn’t see either a TV add for either side. I did heard a lot more ‘Don’t know vote No’ than anything else. I’m not sure anecdote is particularly helpful though.
Voting in Australia is MANDATORY… that’s not how it should be, I voted what I voted because I don’t give a fuck, I’m uninformed and hate the government… in my eyes I vote to save myself a $200 fine, it’s basically blackmail…
and a more complicated picture emerges
Racism and bigotry aren’t complicated.
everyone acting like it’s some great mystery… simple truth is that Australians are profoundly entitled, racist, arseholes. anyone who has lived in any other culture and then returned will agree.
I’ve lived overseas and I disagree.
Australia is no more racist than some other developed and developing nations, and there are countries with more racism than Australia.
Travel to different cities in the US and notice how neighbourhoods are subtlety segregated by race.
Talk to any European about their thoughts on gypsies.
Ask Japanese about their thoughts on Koreans.
Look up the usage of the word “keling” in south east asian cultures.
What we have in Australia is perhaps a more overt style of referring to cultures or differences, but the barriers to integrate with Australian culture is much lower than other countries. For some migrants that have come from cultures where they had a racial privilege (e.g. caste systems), it could now be confronting to them that their standing in Australia is lowered and equalised.
The way that we establish social bonds (banter, joking around, jabs, insults etc) can also be confusing to foreigners and be perceived as racist, but it’s an old UK way of establishing camaraderie by proving that you can dish out an insult but also take it as well. Like stand-up comedy material, this method is being tamed as time goes on.
One final indicator of racial division is the level of mixed marriages. If it was a serious problem, we would see low levels of marriages between different countries of origin. In the EU, the rate of mixed marriages is about 8% (1 in 12). In Australia, the rate is 3.5x larger at 29%.
I wouldn’t necessarily phrase it like that. There’s a danger of oversimplifying the problem into just good (non-racist) and bad (racist) people and that doesn’t help at all. The problems are systemic and go right to the very core of our nation. Non-Indigenous Australians will continue to make irrational, selfish decisions with regards to Indigenous Australians for as long as they don’t understand why Indigenous culture is important (not just in Australia, but throughout the world) or the truth of their nation’s history. Australia is culturally uneducated and unaware compared to the rest of the world and that has to change for any further progress to be made with regards to recognising Indigenous sovereignty in some form.
no, I’m talking about Australians and their culture. Australians acts like their state is a vital and respected world player, in reality it’s just cemented its place as an arrogant and largely irrelevant post-colonial meme that will be completely subsumed by a more powerful Asian neighbour in the near future. The sad hilarity is that all we’re trying to save back home is petty white hubris.
anyone who has lived in any other culture and then returned will agree
Big call. I’ve spent a few years south east asia. Racism and classism is deeply rooted in their cultural psyche. As a European foreigner you’re the beneficiary of their preconceptions, but talk to pretty much any of them about neighbouring countries, or differing religions and you see a very different picture.
Yeah, I’ve mentioned to some friends and family that my wife and I are moving overseas. I don’t use Facebook or anything, I’ve purposely not engaged in discussions with them about the Voice.
And some of the hate and vitriol has been astounding. Full mask-off Aussie exceptionalism.
The Voice was just the nail in the coffin for us. We’d been considering moving for a while. I wish Aussies really knew how fucked our work culture is. And how shit our pay is relative to the cost of living.
They’re living in a fantastical version of Australia sold to them by a nationalist media.
What country are you planning to move to? General curious what country you think would be better.
Typical far left way of thinking. Call the people that you want to vote for your ideologies and ideas more hateful words, I’m sure it’ll definitely work for you this time.
You guys are so arrogantly stupid you can’t even figure out the real reason why you lost.
What about the, and I’m quoting a couple people I know, “I didn’t know what it was about, so I voted no” votes?
My retort to that argument was always along the lines of “do you know the detail of every single policy that the party/candidate you vote for is running with?” And the answer is always invariably ‘no’. For some reason it’s fine to vote for our elected representatives without educating yourself, but not fine to vote for a referendum without educating yourself.
I wish everyone in this camp chose to cast an informal vote instead, there’s a chance the referendum might have eked out a Yes that way.
A family member recons “Don’t know/Unsure” should have been a 3rd option in the ballot, and not counted, as a way to deal with indifferent voters.
Either way I’m disappointed for the 80% indigenous communities that needed our support.
My advice to people who expressed confusion/uncertainty was to ask themselves the same two questions I asked myself on the same sex marriage plebiscite:
- How does this affect you?
- What does it mean to those who want it?
The answer (for someone with a conscience) is usually pretty straightforward.
I should point out that this article has already been posted to !australianpolitics@aussie.zone: https://aussie.zone/post/3016560
But you do ask an important question so I’ll leave it here
Great analysis, very readable and a clear message
