The Voice failed but we can change the shameful state of life for Indigenous Australians

It wasn’t the No campaign that won this battle. The Yes side just lost it, argues Matt Cunningham.

There was an army of Yes campaign volunteers on polling booths across the country on Saturday. They probably outnumbered the No side by 10 to one.

That might, in part, tell the story of this campaign.

For it wasn’t the No campaign that won this battle, rather the Yes side that lost it.

That’s a great shame for the Yes campaigners who genuinely saw this as an opportunity to improve the lives of marginalised Aboriginal people.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with partner Jodie Haydon at the Balmain Public School polling station in Sydney’s inner west on Referendum Day. Picture: Tim Hunter.

When you listen to people like Rachel Perkins, Noel Pearson and Dean Parkin articulate the need for a Voice to help lift Aboriginal people, particularly those living in remote areas, out of their cycle of disadvantage and despair, it’s hard not to be moved by their arguments.

Unfortunately their cause was hijacked by a conga line of elites professing their support for the Voice, more for their own benefit than the benefit of people living in Papunya or Peppimenarti.

As the celebrity Instagram posts rose, the support in the polls fell.

Still, the government persisted with the line that if celebrities, sporting bodies and big corporations were supporting the Voice, so should you.

It was almost certainly by accident that when the Prime Minister made his final pitch to voters in Sydney on Saturday, paying tribute to the work of his Indigenous colleagues Linda Burney, Patrick Dodson and Malarndirri McCarthy, he failed to mention fellow Labor MP and Tiwi Islander Marion Scrymgour.

Mr Albanese embraces a young Yolngu child during Garma Festival at Gulkula on August 05, 2023 in East Arnhem, Australia. Picture: Tamati Smith/Getty Images

Ms Scrymgour represents the seat of Lingiari, 1.4 square million kilometres of the Northern Territory taking in more than 70 remote communities and hundreds of outstations where Aboriginal people live, often in third-world conditions.

She’s a passionate and honest advocate for her people. But by accident or design, she’s taken a back seat in the Voice campaign.

The Prime Minister twice took the cameras with him to the Garma Festival in Northeast Arnhem Land, but he didn’t take them into the nearby community of Yirrkala.

Mr Albanese with Pat Farmer as he finishes his run around the country to raise awareness about the Yes campaign in Uluru. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The cameras were at the foot of Uluru with the PM on Wednesday when former Liberal MP Pat Farmer completed his commendable run around the country to raise awareness for the Voice. But they weren’t taken a kilometre up the road to Mutitjulu.

The Voice referendum might be lost, but the opportunity to do something about the shameful state of life in remote Indigenous communities remains.

If the Prime Minister wants to seize that opportunity, he should ask Ms Scrymgour for a tour of her electorate and take the cameras along with him.

For if Australians saw the true state of life in these places, they might be convinced of the need to do something differently.

Originally published as The Voice failed but we can change the shameful state of life for Indigenous Australians