The irony. With many Indigenous leaders declaring a week of silence to grieve last weekend’s referendum result, Australian politics was largely reduced this week to what the Voice was supposed to address: white people yelling at each other while First Nations people were forced to watch from the sidelines.

There were the column-metres of analysis of what had happened in the campaign. But, more disturbingly, there were the clear signs that not only had the Voice not succeeded but that opportunities were being taken away.