Yes campaign must work harder to rediscover love
The end to parliamentary sittings on Thursday before the voice to parliament referendum is held on October 14 cannot come soon enough for an embattled Albanese government and Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney. The Yes campaign pivot to love has become embroiled in heated debate over comments by voice co-architect Marcia Langton.
Nobody can question Professor Langton’s commitment to the referendum cause. But she has become engulfed in the cut and thrust of politics where every word is monitored for meaning and broadcast to the world. As Indigenous affairs correspondent Paige Taylor wrote on Wednesday, Professor Langton is fiercely her own person. She has confounded the left with her support for the cashless debit card and stark warnings about the price Aboriginal people will pay to accommodate the green economy. But from deep inside the Yes camp she has veered off script and abandoned the need for conspicuous tolerance to win back what are considered to be soft No voters.
No amount of spin can do away with the reality that Professor Langton has a disparaging view of many of those who do not agree with her that constitutional change is necessary. This includes Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and her mother Bess Price, whom Professor Langton accused in writing in 2018 of being “the coloured help” to rescue the image of conservative think tanks. Professor Langton has defended comments she made in Bunbury, Western Australia, on Sunday, saying accusations of racism and stupidity were directed at the No campaign, not voters. Audio of the event obtained by The Australian records Professor Langton saying: “Every time the No case raises one of their arguments, if you start pulling it apart you get down to base racism – I’m sorry to say it but that’s where it lands – or just sheer stupidity.”
There is little ambiguity in comments Professor Langton made in Brisbane in July that the “surge of racist nonsense” was confined to a minority of Australians. “Ordinary Australians are thinking yes, of course I am voting for the voice, and that would be 48 to 49 per cent,” she said. “Then there is the hard No voters, and I am hoping they are about 20 per cent, and they are the ones who are spewing the racism.” Professor Langton accused conservative leaders Peter Dutton and David Littleproud of “appealing to their racist base with claims the proposal will racially divide the nation”. To top things off, Professor Langton said families had been broken apart by social workers who “are by and large white and racist” and that police were “racist” and “got brownie points for rounding people up”.
The Yes campaign must quickly return to the position Noel Pearson has expressed in recent days that involves listening respectfully to those people who have reservations or questions or concerns about the referendum. “We have got to deal with them in good faith. We have to believe their questions come from a good place,” Mr Pearson has said. “The Yes campaign has to find the humility and patience and respect that Australians are contemplating a change to their most sacred document. It is an important document to everyone and it should not be lightly changed.” He is correct in his assessment that respect, information and better understanding are the ways in which a referendum should be fought.
The furore over Professor Langton’s comments has added a febrile tone to the final sitting days of parliament before the vote is held. Given the precarious position the Yes campaign holds in opinion polls, deep frustrations are to be expected. It is still possible for things to turn around. But the dire situation reflects the way in which the referendum has been framed and conducted by Anthony Albanese. The absence of bipartisan support has resulted in heightened political tensions that further undermine trust. Voters can sense there are things that are not being said. Outbursts such as those by Professor Langton will make them only more suspicious.
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Read related topics:Indigenous Voice To Parliament