Australians have resoundingly rejected a proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in its constitution and establish a body to advise parliament on Indigenous issues.

Saturday’s voice to parliament referendum failed, with the defeat clear shortly after polls closed.

  • danl@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Leaving the moral arguments aside, there were also massive campaign failures on the Yes side. No had two clear cheerleaders with an absurdly simple catchphrase: “If you don’t know, vote No”. Meanwhile Yes didn’t have a star for the campaign and had made the amendment way too simple/general so there weren’t any included details of the practicalities. So they ended up with 100 people having to re-explain their plans every campaign stop and occasionally tripping over each other’s messages. As a result, the complicated sell from Yes played right into No‘s hands.

    • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      So the No side’s campaign was one of deliberately not educating people? To me that just says that people educated on the subject are voting Yes.

      While that may be an absurdly simple slogan, it is also absurdly stupid.

        • Ilandar@aussie.zone
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          1 year ago

          I don’t understand why the media is so desperate to frame the result around cost of living. It was clearly about education.

      • Cypher@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        The only Territory to vote yes, out of all our States and Territories, was the Australian Capital Territory which is the most educated and most involved with governance.

      • Elliemac@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        The ‘No’ campaign was largely nonexistent. The ‘Yes’ campaign was enough reason to vote ‘No’. And the ‘No’ voters are just as educated as ‘Yes’ voters. It’s just that some people can’t understand why other people would disagree with them.

        • ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Some are educated, some are racist - no reason they can’t be both.

          It’s easy to understand ignorance and racism.

          (There’s a third option, and that’s for the mining magnates like Clive who want less complaining about digging up sacred sites)