‘Culturally different’: Expert reveals why Waleed Aly was ‘right’ about key gulf in referendum voters

Waleed Aly has become the centre of debate again after claiming education was the “dividing line” between voters. Here’s why he might not be wrong.

Waleed Aly’s comments about the difference in education of Yes and No Voice voters has caused quite a stir around Australia in the wake of the weekend’s referendum.

The Project host has been accused of being out of touch with the average Australian, with a western Sydney mayor branding his remarks “direspectful”.

More than 60 per cent of Australians enrolled wrote “No” on Saturday, with mainly inner city suburbs coming out for Yes.

“The biggest dividing line seems to have been education,” Waleed said on Monday night’s program, sparking a wave of backlash.

The star pointed out that seats with high levels of tertiary education and degrees were at the top end of the Yes vote, while those with lower levels were at the lower end.

“That’s not to say people who were educated know what they’re doing and people who don’t have tertiary education don’t,” he added, saying the message wasn’t properly driven towards different communities.

Liverpool Council Mayor Ned Mannoun told Ben Fordham on 2GB his community was “not dumb”, rejecting Aly’s explanation.

Mr Mannoun also said the “lack of detail” was also a factor.

“It was like a salesman saying ‘sign up here and everything will be all right and leave the detail to me’ and it didn’t sit right with people,” he said.

Mr Mannoun said “people in western Sydney can smell bulls**t a mile away” urging the media and politicians “not to look down” on western Sydney.

“Don’t say that we aren’t smart,” he said. “There are some brilliant people and brilliant minds here.”

But Kos Samaras, a researcher at RedBridge Group Australia, agreed with Aly that the key failure of the Yes campaign was fundamentally in its inability to communicate its issues to demographics outside major cities.

Even after millions of taxpayer dollars were thrown at the public relations campaign, officials still failed to understand how to convince those living outside inner city bubbles.

Waleed Aly’s comments regarding the ‘education’ of Voice referendum voters has caused quite a stir around Australia in the wake of the weekend’s referendum.

“Waleed Aly was talking about a fact. University degree, coupled with geographic location and then age, correlated heavily with a Yes vote,” he said on X on Tuesday.

“He also nailed the underlying issue here, which of course, most who are attacking him have completely overlooked. The method of communication had to be different to outer suburban communities. That was not because they are not intelligent but are culturally different.

“The lifestyle of MPs, media and the staffer class separates them from the lived experience of outer suburban Australians. Yes23 built a campaign that was great for the first group and not the second group.”

Waleed Aly was talking about a fact. University degree, coupled with geographic location and then age, correlated heavily with a Yes vote.

He also nailed the underlying issue here, which of course, most who are attacking him have completely overlooked.

The method of…

— Kos Samaras (@KosSamaras) October 17, 2023

Aussies resoundingly rejected the Voice to Parliament. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Samaras also hit back at the common attack on the No campaign, that “disinformation” was what drove the referendum’s failure.

He described it as the “gullible working class people narrative”.

The ABC’s Patricia Karvelas agreed with Mr Samaras’ assesment, saying: “It’s easier to pile up against Waleed than actually have a nuanced conversation.”

Aussies resoundingly rejected the Voice to Parliament, but one of the most notable losses was in Western Sydney, a belt of about 10 federal electorates with a high number of migrants and aspirational voters.

In an emotional speech on Saturday night as the result became clear, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he never imagined it would be easy to secure a victory but shared that he was disappointed by the outcome.

He said in a speech: “As Prime Minister I will always accept responsibility for the decisions I’ve taken and I do so tonight but I do want Australians to know I will always be ambitious for our country.”

Originally published as ‘Culturally different’: Expert reveals why Waleed Aly was ‘right’ about key gulf in referendum voters