Early polls had shown support for the idea of an Indigenous voice.
However, as it became clear that the proposal involved changing the Constitution, Australians became doubtful. If this initiative was so important why not legislate it first? A lack of any testing phase made people skittish. Anyone who has ever tried something new knows it does not always work out. And in the realm of Aboriginal affairs the gap between intentions and outcomes is not small.
When engineers are developing a new aircraft design, they don’t simply build it and then let passengers jump on board. Instead, they test it, run flight trials and safety assessments. Only after all of these tests are completed is a new aircraft considered safe for passengers.
Getting governance right in a liberal democracy with a diverse population is just as tricky as designing an aircraft carrier jet. Get it right and your country can become an oasis of peace and prosperity. Get it wrong and your country can be destroyed by sectarianism, dictatorships and war.
From the secret ballot to compulsory voting, and a Constitution that is serviceable but otherwise unremarkable, the way in which we govern ourselves has proven to be both stable and highly responsive to the will of the people. But this is no accident. This stability was achieved by design.
Now that the proposal to change the Constitution has been defeated, the Albanese government stands at a critical juncture. Its priorities from this week onwards will determine its legacy. Several key areas demand immediate attention.
The first is housing. Our social contract will break apart if younger generations are condemned to living as property-less serfs in our largest cities. Decades of excessive planning regulations, taxes and fees have contributed to making Australian cities some of the costliest in the world. House prices have grown three times faster relative to income, meaning no matter how much workers save, they will never be able to keep up with asset price rises. Nearly two-thirds of Australians now believe home ownership will not be possible for the next generation.
And if younger voters are unable to buy homes near where they work, the flow-on effects on productivity, family formation and political stability will be dire.
The second issue that needs urgent attention is immigration. Ours is a country of migrants and Australians welcome immigration when it happens in an orderly and controlled manner. But current population growth is neither orderly nor controlled. Australia’s population grew by 2.2 per cent last year, a figure that represents more than a half-million people – half the city of Adelaide in just one year. This growth rate is faster than any other rich country in the world and is faster than population growth in Mexico and Bangladesh. We obviously cannot build infrastructure (including houses) to keep up with this demand. If this population growth continues the result will be declining living standards for us all.
Third, our shambolic energy transition requires urgent expert attention. Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has shown that he struggles to grasp the complexities of his portfolio. And CSIRO GenCost modelling has been shown to be incomplete. The moratorium on nuclear power needs to be lifted and new modelling commissioned by independent economists needs to be conducted as a matter of urgency.
Yet a fourth issue is perhaps the most important, right at this moment. As sectarian violence engulfs entire regions, the Albanese government needs to articulate and defend Australian values.
Just this week a hospital in Gaza was blasted and a US embassy in Lebanon was set on fire. In France, a teacher was stabbed by an assailant yelling “Allahu akbar”, and two Swedes were shot dead in Brussels.
All over the world, and on the streets of Sydney and Melbourne, hard-left groups have defended and excused the barbarity of Hamas’s assault on Israel that has now claimed more than 1400 lives.
We are not immune to the fallout from this war. At home in Australia, our own Greens, alongside teal independents Sophie Scamps and Kylea Tink, have shamefully obstructed a motion to condemn Hamas in parliament, arguing in contradiction to article 51 of the UN Charter that Israel has no right to defend itself.
With this background of unfolding horror, it becomes even more critical for the Albanese government to articulate and defend Australian values from those who would threaten them. And the most important of those values is our belief in democracy.
Millions of Australians queued up at schools and churches last Saturday to collect their piece of paper from an Australian Electoral Commission official and write their preference regarding the referendum. And whether the result is one that we agreed with or not, the fact we can continue to run such rituals in an orderly and peaceful manner is a testament to the strength of our democracy.
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By the time the official Yes campaign for the Indigenous voice to parliament launched, most Australians were suffering from widespread voter weariness. Struggling to make mortgage repayments and dismayed by their ever expanding grocery bills, to many the government’s focus on a constitutional amendment seemed like a distraction.