| | | 16/10/2023 Monday briefing: How Australia voted down a historic plan to boost Indigenous rights | | | | Rupert Neate |  |
| | | Good morning. Over the weekend Australia voted no in its Indigenous voice to parliament referendum that would have recognised Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the constitution and created an advisory group of Indigenous representatives. The government would have then consulted that group on issues affecting their communities. However, Australians voted more than 60% against the proposed law to “recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice”. Thomas Mayo, a leading yes campaigner, said he was “devastated”. “We need a voice. We need that structural change,” he said. “But we have seen a disgusting no campaign, a campaign that has been dishonest, that has lied to the Australian people and I’m sure that will come out in the analysis.” Stay with us after the headlines for a deep dive into the referendum and what the outcome means. | | | | Five big stories | 1 | Israel-Hamas war | Any move by Israel to occupy Gaza would be a “big mistake”, US president Joe Biden has said, amid hopes that the enclave’s border with Egypt would open to allow aid in, as Israeli troops continued to prepare for a ground invasion. | 2 | | 3 | | 4 | SNP | Humza Yousaf has quelled a rebellion by Scottish National party MPs by agreeing to a compromise with his critics over his independence strategy. The party’s annual conference in Aberdeen decided that if the SNP wins a majority of Scotland’s Westminster seats at the general election, it will have the mandate to negotiate independence with the UK government. | 5 | |
| | | | In depth: ‘Truth-telling is the way we lead the nation to healing – we can’t avoid it any longer’ | | The question on the ballot on Saturday was: “A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Do you approve this proposed alteration?” If voted through, it would have been the first change to Australia’s constitution in 46 years. Winning the vote was a tough ask, as only eight out of 44 constitutional referendums in Australia had passed. Creation of the voice was recommended in the 2017 Uluru statement from the heart after a summit of more than 250 Indigenous leaders who came together to discuss how to best recognise the Indigenous peoples – those who lived in the land now known as Australia for 65,000 years before Captain James Cook “took possession” of it in 1770. The Uluru statement demanded “constitutional reforms to empower our people”. “When we have power over our destiny, our children will flourish,” it said. “Makarrata [a word in the Yolngu language] is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle.”
A long struggle for recognition Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, who was elected as the Labor party took power last year, had made creating the voice a key plank of his premiership. “The idea for a voice came from the people – and it will be decided by the people,” he said in a speech in August. “You’re being asked to vote for an idea. To say yes to an idea whose time has come.” He said the voice was “a practical way of dealing with issues that, despite all the good intentions in this world, no Australian government has been able to get right before”. The issue of recognition of Indigenous people has always been troublesome for Australia. Until a 1967 referendum – which was run with a campaign calling on Australians to “Right Wrongs, Write Yes” – they were not included in the census. Just under 91% voted yes. However, it was not until 1984 that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were – in the words of the National Museum of Australia – “finally treated like other voters and required to enrol and vote at elections”. Another referendum in 1999 proposed altering the constitution to allow the establishment of a republic, and to add a preamble that would have included a clause “honouring” Indigenous people as the “nation’s first people”. Both failed.
Why do Indigenous people say they need the voice? | | The statistics are clear. Indigenous Australians on average die eight years earlier than the average Australian, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. They’re twice as likely to die by suicide, and 12 times more likely to be jailed, according to research by the Economist. Signatories of the Uluru statement say life chances for the country’s 983,700 Indigenous people are below those of the wider community, because of the government’s failure to consult Indigenous people on policies that affect them. “Non-Indigenous people [are] making decisions about communities they have never visited and people they do not know,” Prof Megan Davis, an Uluru Statement signatory, said. “This is why so many communities are not flourishing. This is why so many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are struggling. The decisions made about their lives are crafted by people in Canberra or other big cities.”
Why did the nation vote no? The no campaign leaned heavily on the slogan “If you don’t know, vote no”, which Australia’s former high court justice Robert French described as an invitation to “resentful, uninquiring passivity”. “The Australian spirit evoked by the ‘don’t know’ slogan is a poor shadow of the spirit which drew up our constitution,” he said. “It invites us to a resentful, uninquiring passivity. Australians, whether they vote yes or no, are better than that.” Proponents of the no campaign, including the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, called on the public to vote against, claiming that the proposal had not been properly explained. “It’s divisive. It’s permanent once it goes into the constitution.” They claimed that rather than bringing people together it would “permanently divide” the country because it would give some Australians greater rights than others. However, legal experts – including the federal solicitor general – disputed that, saying the voice would not have had any power to veto legislation. The no campaign had been spearhead by Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, the shadow minister for Indigenous affairs, who describes herself as a Warlpiri-Celtic woman. During the campaign, when asked if Indigenous people were suffering negative impacts of colonisation, she said no. “I’ll be honest with you, I do not think so. A positive impact? Absolutely. I mean, now we have running water, readily available food.” Lorena Allam, Guardian Australia’s Indigenous affairs editor, says Price’s comments “erupted an intense debate”. “The debate was not whether she was right or wrong, it was more about all the different ways she was wrong,” says Allam, who is descended from the Gamilaraay and Yawalaraay nations of north-west New South Wales. “But it shows in hindsight that truth-telling should have come first. “Australia is coming to terms with its history, but for that to really seep into the suburbs where we wanted people to vote, truth-telling is an essential part of what we need to do. “The country is divided by this, people have been scarred by the experience. Truth-telling is the way we lead the nation to some place of healing – we can’t avoid it any longer.” | | | | What else we’ve been reading | | The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey is charming but frank in their interview with Hollie Richardson: “Now that I’m getting older, I’m looking forward to being able to help other people I work with – be the adult who can advocate for the younger person,” they say. Nimo The show at Kharkiv opera house must go on even though the Ukrainian city is just 19 miles from the Russian border.Ten of the company are serving in the army, and one member of the technical department has been killed on the frontline. Charlotte Higgins meets the remaining few of the company continuing to put on concerts. Rupert Afua Hirsch has written brilliantly about why, as she turns 40, she has decided to turn her back on society’s beauty standards. Nimo Everyone in Malta read the articles by Daphne Caruana Galizia, the fearless reporter who stood up to politicians, drug traffickers, tax dodgers. Her son, Paul, talks movingly about the moment he learned of her assassination in a car bomb and the drive she gave him to fight corruption. Rupert Isaac Chotiner’s (£) conversation with Tareq Baconi, the president of the board of the thinktank Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network, on how Hamas’ attack this month has shifted the paradigm of the conflict is incredibly illuminating. Nimo
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| | | Sport | | Rugby union | England reached the semi-final of the World Cup after beating Fiji 30-24 thanks to the boot of Owen Farrell, pictured above, who kicked a drop goal and penalty in the last 10 minutes. South Africa ruined France’s World Cup dream 28-29 to set up their semi-final against England. Football | Wales shock Croatia in a 2-1 win in the Euro 2024 qualifier. Harry Wilson was the match-winner on a supercharged night, scoring twice to hoist Wales into second in Group D. Cricket | Jos Buttler’s England side became the victims of one of the World Cup’s biggest ever shocks in Delhi, after Afghanistan defeated them by 69 runs to end a 14-game, eight-year World Cup losing run. It leaves the champions’ hopes of retaining the title in tatters. | | | | The front pages | | The Guardian’s front page has “US in last-ditch effort to reduce impact of Israeli assault on Gaza” with a picture of children being taken to hospital after an Israeli airstrike. The Times has a similar theme with “A million try to flee as invasion of Gaza looms” above an image of Gaza residents fleeing south. Concerns over possible regional fallout dominate other front pages. The Financial Times says “US warns Iran not to escalate Gaza war into broader Mideast conflict”, while the i says “US and UK in race to try to prevent Israel conflict spreading”. The Mirror says“Fears of an all-out war” and the Sun’s headline reads “Fury and fear”. In the Telegraph it’s“Israel vows to ‘destroy’ Lebanon if war spreads”. And the Mail takes a more domestic line with “The police are coming for you if you glorify terrorism”, referring to comments made by the home secretary, Suella Braverman. | | | | | Today in Focus | | The hidden cost of cancer As the Guardian’s money and consumer editor, Hilary Osborne is used to thinking about the financial consequences of every life event. But when she was diagnosed with breast cancer she assumed the cost of it would be the last thing on her mind. Instead she discovered that being ill had hidden costs – ones that pushed many women into financial catastrophe. Hilary speaks to women such as Stevie and Amelia, and asks what needs to change so that finances are not an extra worry at such a terrifying time. | | | | | Cartoon of the day | Edith Pritchett | | Sign up for Inside Saturday to see more of Edith Pritchett’s cartoons, the best Saturday magazine content and an exclusive look behind the scenes | | | | The Upside | A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad | | Mark Sadler never felt as if he really chose the jobs he ended up in. When he reached 60, he knew he needed to take charge. He was retired, his children were grown up so there were far fewer barriers for Sadler to pursue something that really spoke to him. So he swapped out hi-vis vests and steel-toed boots that he needed for working on the underground for swimming trunks and sunscreen: Sadler took a job as a lifeguard at a lido in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. A childhood love of swimming and his mother’s enthusiasm for the sea made it a no-brainer for Sadler, especially after a health scare made him realise that he was as fit as he was ever going to be – if he wanted to pursue lifeguarding he could not waste any time. He feels, now more than ever, that he is learning something new every day, in an environment that he has longed to be in since he was a child. Sadler has no plans to stop any time soon: “I want another eight seasons at least,” he says. “I want to make it until I’m 70.” Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday | | | | Bored at work? | And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow. | | | | | | … there is a good reason why NOT to support the Guardian | | Not everyone can afford to pay for news right now. That is why we keep our journalism open for everyone to read. If this is you, please continue to read for free.
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