Australia votes No to the voice: One voice needed for new way forward

Anthony Albanese must ‘keep his word to be humble and gracious in defeat and optimistic and co-operative in the future’. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The one great positive to come out of the one great negative vote on the Indigenous voice to parliament is that all sides of politics and the vast Australian public are now as one in their consciousness of the dire need for a new way to deal with Indigenous disadvantage.

What’s more they are activated and energised to travel on a “new path”.

It is a tragedy, a disgrace even, that the nation was forced to vote on a point of principle that lacked any practical explanation at great social and financial cost – probably close to half a billion dollars when the counting is done. The same end could easily have been achieved otherwise and at much less cost.

Anthony Albanese’s blinkered determination and refusal to exercise leadership led Australia down this path but, at least, at the defining moment, he has recognised the error of his ways and started to flip his rhetoric from insult and threat to a more conciliatory air.

The Prime Minister’s leadership will not be challenged by this failure. Of course his judgment, credibility and authority will all be queried, but, it is how he charts a way out and looks to all the other challenges facing Australia that will determine the long-term success as leader.

The campaign for an Indigenous voice to parliament and executive government was flawed and doomed from the start but Albanese refused to take friendly advice or offer any compromise as did the self-selected Indigenous leaders.

What must now lie ahead is a spirit of conciliation and compromise that was never evident in a process skewed away from information, detail and transparency.

Recrimination and blame shifting towards Peter Dutton and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, which are wrong and ill-founded, must cease and as much effort as was put into the referendum must now be put into healing divisions and working for practical, transparent policies aimed at lifting the burden on disadvantaged Indigenous communities.

Yes campaign leaders, including Albanese, Linda Burney, Noel Pearson, Megan Davis and Marcia Langton, have no one to blame but themselves for this loss. Claims of disgusting behaviour and misinformation and disinformation are untenable and counter-productive.

As Price said on Saturday night: “It has been a shame that throughout the campaign that we have been accused of misleading this country, through disinformation and misinformation, when it was a campaign of no information whatsoever; and that we called out where the Australian people were being misled”.

The Opposition Leader likewise defended those on the No campaign but importantly also said: “We do need to turn the page, to unite, and to address the many challenges facing our country.”

Dutton set out two proposals – a royal commission into sexual abuse of children and an audit of existing systems to ensure the money meant for Indigenous disadvantage finds its mark.

For his part Albanese, in a scripted, carefully considered and important speech of concession adopted the same conciliatory note and looked to the future.

“Tonight we must meet this result with the same grace and humility. And tomorrow, we must seek a new way forward with the same optimism,” he said.

While defending his actions in sticking to the referendum process and presenting them as keeping a promise and an act of conviction, Albanese included a switch in language and rhetoric that was important and necessary after he “fell short”.

“As Prime Minister, I will always accept responsibility for the decisions I have taken. And I do so tonight,” he said.

Again the scripted speech contained the necessary messages about the future and dropped the campaign claims that there would be “no change” in the case of a No vote and there would only be the status quo of indigenous disadvantage.

“I will always be ambitious for our country, ambitious for us to be the very best version of ourselves. I will always be optimistic for what we can achieve together. In that spirit, just as I offered many times to co-operate with people from across the political spectrum on the next steps in the event of a Yes victory, I renew that offer of co-operation,” he said.

“While there has been talk in recent times about division, let us now co-operate to address the real division. The real division is one of disadvantage. The division that is the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in life expectancy, in educational opportunity, in rates of suicide and disease.

“The gap which separates Indigenous Australians from the right to make a good life for themselves.”

Significantly, after campaigning with the inherent threat that there would be nothing done if the referendum failed to deliver a voice, Albanese specifically said those campaigning against the voice to parliament had not been campaigning for the status quo.

“Those arguing against a change to the Constitution were not arguing for the status quo, because no one could say that more of the same is good enough for Australia. Let us hold onto that truth, because a great nation like ours can and must do better for the First Australians,” he said.

There was also no suggestion that after arguing it for months that Australians would wake up on Sunday morning as international pariahs shunned by our regional neighbours.

Albanese’s good intentions and political discipline went a little awry as soon as he went off script and started to answer questions off the cuff and lent towards less gracious words.

This is the test for Albanese as a leader to stick to the calculated and necessary script for a better future for all Australians and keep his word to be humble and gracious in defeat and optimistic and co-operative in the future.