Australians reject Indigenous Voice to advise parliament
Australians have voted against enshrining in the constitution a mechanism for Indigenous people to advise Parliament on their affairs. The "yes" camp had hoped such change could have helped reverse the fortunes of the nation's most disadvantaged ethnic minority.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 At the Olympic Games in 1996, she represented the nation.
00:04 Nova Paris, the first Aboriginal woman to win an Olympic gold medal.
00:10 Now she's been campaigning for a 'yes' vote in a historic constitutional referendum
00:15 that she hoped would help empower her fellow Indigenous Australians.
00:19 In 1901, you left us off the nation's birth certificate.
00:25 We as First Nations people do not come from any other continent, no other country.
00:31 All Australians, everyone who's come to this country, who are now citizens, allow us to
00:37 be seen to the rest of the world.
00:40 Despite a positive start, opinion polls pointed early on to a loss for the 'yes' campaign
00:46 in a vote that had turned into a touchstone for Australia's national identity.
00:51 A 'yes' vote would not only have formally recognised the Indigenous population as the
00:56 country's original inhabitants, but also established a body to advise Parliament on their affairs.
01:03 For both David and Roger, who were supporters of the 'no' campaign, this was a major sticking
01:09 point.
01:10 We're very keen to help Aboriginals in every way possible, but that previously Aboriginal
01:17 bodies have often been corrupt, and if it's not successful, you've got no means of aborting
01:24 it.
01:25 That's the problem.
01:26 The 'no' camp also argued that a successful vote would divide the nation racially, by
01:31 putting the interests of one group of people above the rest.
01:35 It's giving preferred access to one portion of the Australian population, to the executive
01:43 government and to the Parliament, this proposal.
01:47 It would give them an advantage, yes.
01:49 But that is exactly what the Indigenous groups need, says Nova Paris.
01:53 She had hoped the constitutional change could have helped to turn things around for the
01:58 nation's most disadvantaged ethnic minority.
02:01 Why are we the most incarcerated?
02:03 Why are we the most sickest?
02:05 The highest unemployment rate in some of these remote communities are like 70 to 80 per cent.
02:10 Aboriginal people suffer in this country.
02:13 The 'yes' campaign fought to the last minute, but they needed broad support to win.
02:18 The Indigenous communities only account for three per cent of the population, and lacked
02:23 the numbers to significantly influence the outcome by themselves.