Splitting the vote: Tony D’Souza on the recent referendum in Australia

‘This referendum hurt Australian society.’

We arrive in Australia at a time of great social change. A nationwide referendum, called ‘The Voice,’ was held on 14 October. In Britain, readers will remember the acrimony of the Brexit debate. It was much the same here. If you remember Brexit, you would not be surprised by the amount of misinformation, abuse and downright lies being told. This referendum hurt Australian society, polarising it into two warring factions, the yes and the no camps. It may take years to recover.

‘The Voice’ was an attempt to recognise the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia. The question on the ballot paper asked a simple yes or no question: ‘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 of this proposed alteration?’

The Voice would have added three clauses to the constitution: ‘There shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice; The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.’

So far, so not very controversial, you might think. But you would be wrong. The question was politicised and there were many opposing voices. There were those who thought it went too far, those who think it did not go far enough, and those vehemently opposed it simply because they couldn’t see any reason for change. I thought long and hard about it. As an outsider, I did not have a vote, but I can give my opinion.

James Cook, the lieutenant in command of the HMS Endeavour, dropped anchor in Botany Bay on 29 April, 1770. The instant Cook’s anchor hit the water, history changed forever. He claimed the land for the British crown, and an alien culture had arrived. This is an important point because, prior to this moment, an indigenous population had inhabited this vast island for thousands of years. In fact, the latest DNA technology confirms Australian aborigines to be the direct descendants of the first humans to walk out of the rift valley in Africa 75,000 years ago, making them the oldest continuous culture on the planet.

In 1788, more British ships arrived in Botany Bay to establish a penal colony, and during the next hundred years the British established similar colonies throughout Australia. During this time of colonial expansion, the numbers of indigenous people (who were not classed as human by the colonists, but as fauna, no different from native wildlife) were greatly reduced. This increase in mortality was caused by the introduction of European diseases to which the aborigines had no immunity and by the unbridled slaughter of the genocidal frontier wars.

The recent referendum was a long time coming, and a timeline might be helpful.

Between 1910 and the 1970s, a third of indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families to assimilate them into white society. In some families, children from three or more generations were taken. They are known as the ‘stolen generation’.

In the 1930s William Cooper, secretary of the Australian Aborigines’ League, gathered signatures for a petition to George V seeking Aboriginal representation in parliament. The petition was presented to Joseph Lyons, prime minister of Australia, to pass to the king. But his cabinet decided that ‘no good purpose would be gained by submitting the petition’ and it was not forwarded.

In the 1960s, Aboriginal affairs were still regulated by the state. In most states Aboriginal Australians were banned from drinking alcohol and their freedom of association, movement and control of property were all tightly restricted. Some states banned Aboriginal people from voting. Queensland and Western Australia even controlled their right to marry. In addition, Aborigines were often subjected to unofficial ‘colour bars’ restricting their access to many goods, services and public facilities, especially in country towns.

In August 1963, two ‘tree bark’ petitions were presented to the Australian parliament. This was the indigenous peoples’ first formal attempt to have their land rights recognised. The petitions asserted that the federal government had granted mining rights to a private company on land which was owned by Aboriginal people. A subsequent court decision declared that the ordinances and mining leases were valid, and that the Aborigines (the Yolngu) were unable to establish their native title at common law. The mining went ahead and promised compensation was never paid.

In a referendum in 1967 Australians voted by a ninety-one per cent majority to change the constitution to include all Aboriginal Australians in the national census and allow the parliament to legislate on their behalf. This was the first time the government officially recognised them as fellow citizens.

In 1988 the Barunga Statement was delivered from ‘the indigenous owners and occupiers of Australia’, requesting the Australian government legislate for national land rights and begin treaty negotiations. It also called for a national Aboriginal body and urged the government to support international law by upholding the rights of indigenous peoples. The statement, now hanging in Parliament House, did not deliver any of its stated goals.

Since the 1980s, the official policy of the Australian government and most state governments is the assimilation of Aboriginal people into mainstream culture: ‘all aborigines and part-aborigines are expected to eventually attain the same manner of living as other Australians and to live as members of a single Australian community enjoying the same rights and privileges, accepting the same responsibilities, observing the same customs and influenced by the same beliefs, hopes and loyalties as other Australians.’

But this policy remains aspirational. From 1971 to 2006, indicators for indigenous employment, income, home ownership, education and life expectancy improved, but remained well below the level for those who were not indigenous. This is known as ‘the gap’ and in 2008 the government created targets for ‘closing the gap’ by addressing inequality in the key areas of education, employment, literacy and child mortality. Indeed, by 2020, the outcomes for indigenous Australians had improved in many of these areas, but in others, such as child mortality and school attendance, the gap widened.

The indigenous people have waited a long time to be recognised. Some would say they have been waiting since Cook arrived in Botany Bay. My hope for the Australian people had echoed the words of that great emancipator, Nelson Mandela, who said ‘Make your choices based on your hopes, not your fears’. Sadly, the Australian people decided that the wait is to continue; their principle of ‘a fair go’ was not extended to their aboriginal brothers and sisters, the original occupiers of this land.

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