Editorial: Albo’s disaster must become a uniting moment

We must ensure this debate at the very least leads to a renewed bipartisan determination to close the gap, writes the editor.

This failed referendum was an avoidable tragedy for which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was right to take responsibility for.

While Mr Albanese’s intention was honourable, by choosing to rush towards the vote instead of doing the work to seek bipartisan support he ensured it would be a divisive campaign – and sowed the seeds of its inevitable failure.

Indigenous Australians woke yesterday feeling worse about their place in our society – the exact opposite of the intention of the exercise. That is the great tragedy.

The Prime Minister was right, then, to have called for a “new national purpose” to tackle Indigenous disadvantage in the wake of the vote. All Australians – particularly those in positions of authority – must sign up to this, and put behind us this whole sorry saga.

First and foremost, we must unite to ensure this is not viewed in any way as a rejection of our Indigenous people. It was not. In fact, we must ensure this debate must at the very least lead to what will hopefully be a renewed bipartisan determination to close the terrible gap between the experiences of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

This gap remains our national shame, not – as some might suggest – Saturday’s vote; which was not a racist one, but a rejection of a well-meaning but ill-defined proposal for more, untested, bureaucracy.

The vote was, however, a clear rejection of that proposal – in fact, it was the ninth-worst result of the 45 referendums put to the Australian people, with 28 failures having won a higher national vote – and 33 having carried at least one state.

That not one state voted for the Voice was a surprise. But when the dust settles the biggest concern for both major parties will be what the result in individual electorates means for them into the future.

For the Coalition, there is no doubt that it has, for now, lost the support of the affluent seats in the centre of the capital cities that it not long ago held a mortgage on. These seats – think of Brisbane and the Indooroopilly-based division of Ryan in the Queensland context – have embraced progressive politics.

This is a very real roadblock to the Coalition’s path to re-election at the next federal poll, even if it is poor analysis to project a vote in a referendum on to a federal election.

The Labor Party also has a lot to learn from this result. For the past decade, it has been captured by the advocates of what is disparagingly called the woke agenda.

Prior to then, Labor’s deep connections to working class unions and its bastion of influential elder statesmen who remained in touch with real people acted as a counterweight to the enthusiastic but extreme activists of the Left.

This result suggests that perhaps Labor’s connection with those voters in the centre of the political spectrum – those millions of “quiet Australians” who in a compulsory voting system decide every election – is at best frayed.

In Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s inner-Sydney electorate, 75 per cent voted Yes. But south of Brisbane in the Logan-based seat held by Treasurer Jim Chalmers, just 35 per cent backed the change.

According to the referendum-eve Newspoll, almost four in 10 Labor voters nationwide were planning to vote No on Saturday. And yet, over the past year the support for the Voice from Labor MPs – state and federal – has been unanimous.

Now there were as many reasons for people to vote No as there were voters who did so. Convention does dictate that MPs toe the party line., but there is no doubt the heartfelt backing for this proposal inside Labor. This result, then, exposes Labor’s insiders as being out of step with those voters who actually determine the outcome of elections. It must be a wake-up call.

This is the case when it comes to Queensland’s state politics as well. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s government is committed not only to a Queensland Voice, but to a formal truth-telling process leading to a Treaty with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (in May Leeanne Enoch was installed as the Minister for Treaty).

And yet on Saturday, not only was the No vote highest here – at almost 70 per cent – but just one in four voters in regional Queensland voted Yes. The five electorates in the nation with the highest No vote were all here – Maranoa, Flynn, Hinkler, Capricornia and Dawson. Five Labor-held state seats sit within those federal divisions. In Townsville, where Labor holds all three state seats, the Yes vote was just 24 per cent.

With opinion polling suggesting the state election in almost exactly a year from now will be tough for Labor, it will be interesting to see if the premier rethinks her approach to reconciliation in the wake of this.

While all but a few Australians are on a unity ticket when it comes to ending disadvantage, this vote suggests they are not when it comes to the Voice – and truth-telling and Treaty are an even harder sell.

It is therefore sadly not hyperbole to say this has taken reconciliation backwards. Political history shows that failed referendums are rarely terminal for the prime minister who proposed them. But considering the impact, this is a terrible outcome for Mr Albanese and the issues he feels so very deeply about. It’s so sad.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here