Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo hugs Yes23 director Dean Parkin after the referendum was defeated. Photo: GETTY IMAGES
1. There Was No ‘NO’ case.
I spent two weeks with my head inside the NO case for an article I wrote for English magazine “Prospect”. I emerged depressed in a wholly new way. If you understand what the NO case did, you also understand they could apply the same method to any subject they wish and win. Roger Stone, political ally of Donald Trump, listed as one of his rules of political combat, “Attack your enemy from every front. Make him feel besieged and confused”. Australians were besieged – particularly on social media – and deeply confused.
Trumpism isn’t about winning the debate on any rational or intellectual plane. It’s about sucking the life out of your opponent. Demoralising them. We’re attracted to hope because it’s a bright idea. Make the whole thing dull and heavy, make it a weight that feeds into the general depression people feel about the state of the world today.
In the end even thinking about it is a burden and you cast it from your thoughts. You may not have said NO at that stage but you are on the downhill path since you haven’t got the energy to explore the YES case and you certainly can’t get any joy from it because it’s besieged by accusations and counter-claims, the likes of Credlin and Bolt blazing away, providing covering fire. In the US, where all these new political forces originate, former Trump tactician Steve Bannon put it this way: “The real enemy is not the Democrats, it’s the media. You beat them by flooding the zone with shit”.
2. If You Don’t Know, Vote No
This is the second most epoch defining campaign slogan I have seen in my adult lifetime, the other being “It’s Time” in 1972.
To commemorate the 2023 slogan, I would like to establish a media award named after Ally Langdon from “A Current Affair”. Ally grilled Ray Martin after he said dinosaurs were voting NO. Ally said Australians didn’t understand the Voice and, as proof of this proposition, said, “I mean, my parents don’t understand it. They’ve looked at it, their group of friends who have looked at it and don’t understand it, that is a massive problem.”
The prize for my media award is a cartoon with a group of dinosaurs looking up at a billboard saying “If You Don’t Know, Vote No”. It’s not just the Voice referendum – it’s all the other things we don’t want to know about. We’ve got an overpopulated, overheating planet with two global conflicts raging as we speak. Major environmental catastrophes could have hundreds of millions of people on the move, the effect of climate change on the world’s agricultural regions could cause widespread famine etcetera etcetera. But back to you in the studio, Ally. Tell us what do your parents and their friends think.
3. Flying The Flag
My wife and her sister, both grandmothers, chose to stand beside major roads and wave YES placards. I stood with them. It was a bracing experience, like riding a rapid in a kayak, not knowing where the rocks are or how far beneath the surface. Seventy per cent of drivers met them with stony indifference, fifteen per cent tooted and gave them the thumbs up and other expressions of jubilant support. Then there were those who were nasty openly hostile. You had to experience it to feel fully alive to this moment in Australian history. The winner in this category was a man in his thirties, dressed like an office worker, who wound down his window and shouted, “FUCK THE ABOS!” I won’t forget him or his number plate.
4. As Seen From The Moon
When the world looks in at our country and this referendum, one thing will stand out like the Great Wall of China is said to stand out when earth is viewed from the moon – how little Indigenous Australia asked for. How modest and un-threatening their request. Then they will see the NO case, how there was no NO case and how much NO there was, flooding the zone with shit.
5. Where To From Here?
There’s no telling where this altered state in the national consciousness will lead, but we’re a different country now. If I were a young Indigenous person, I would now be thinking, “We asked them to help us in the most civil of ways and they said NO. We owe them nothing”. One of the first messages I received after the referendum asked how long it would be before we saw Aboriginal and Palestinian flags standing in solidarity. I imagine most non-Aboriginal Australians reading this will think, “No, that won’t happen. That’s not reasonable”. The Voice referendum had nothing to do with reason, and neither will the events that flow from it.
Brexit, that epic own goal that will serve as the full stop on the story of the British Empire, was delivered by similar forces to those that carried the NO vote. The biggest lesson I have taken from Brexit is the degree to which those responsible for the catastrophe continue to evade liability for it. They double down becoming more extreme versions of themselves. It’s like watching a greenhouse used to grow shamelessness. That will happen here.
It was also reported that Dutton has been seeking political advice from American Republicans. The Republican Party is no longer a pro-democracy party. It’s a party that is purely and simply about power and you wonder how many electoral cycles of such behaviour a democratic system – which is ultimately based on shared belief – can withstand. That’s all on its way here too.
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6. Tony Rabbit
What distinguishes Tony Abbott as a politician is he can, with perfect sincerity, say one thing and then, a few months or a year afterwards, with equal sincerity, say or do the opposite. In this way he approaches the classical definition of a fool. Veteran political journalist Laurie Oakes unforgettably described Abbott and Peta Credlin as “the pair who couldn’t govern to save themselves”.
NO needed a front man, a veneer of respectability, and Tony Rabbit provided it by saying he was against the Voice on grounds of constitutional law. His argument was dismissed by the Solicitor General and a phalanx of former judges and legal academics from around Australia. Nonetheless, Abbott’s role was crucial as it gave a lot of so-called “progressive NO voters” an out to squeeze through.
For “progressive NO voters” with any sort of conscience (progressives without a conscience aren’t really progressive, are they?), I predict a tough time. The fact is that in 10 years when the social problems that triggered the Uluru Voice to the Heart are still unsolved, “the progressive No-voter” will have to confront the fact that, having said NO to the Voice, they have done exactly nothing to address chronic Indigenous disadvantage. They will have done nothing because nothing can be done without the co-operation of Indigenous Australia and that’s precisely what they have spurned. By then it will be too late, other politics will be in play. The new politics will be more bitter, more extreme, more accusatory.
7. A Great Innings
Megan Davis led from the front throughout the YES campaign. I thought she played a great innings. If it were a game of cricket, I’d say she hit them off the front foot, she hit them off the back foot, she cut and pulled but mostly she drove. Roger Stone said you besiege your enemy and confuse them. They besieged Megan Davis but not for one moment did they confuse her. Her tone was unwaveringly authentic. Her touch was authoritative. But I also knew how exhausted she must be. It takes energy dealing with NO. NO here, NO there, NO everywhere. The most moving moment of the campaign for me? Three days before the vote, Megan Davis posted a little video on Twitter – you saw the top of her head, behind her Uluru and, as a soundtrack, The Beatles singing “All You Need Is Love”.
8. All You Need Is A Billionaire
One moment in my life that returns again and again. 1993. I’m watching training at Whitten Oval then called Western Oval. The Western Bulldogs, then called Footscray Football Club, have a chaplain called Ian Corlett. We’re talking metaphysics as we watch Dougie Hawkins and Steve “Super” MacPherson jog past. I say, “There’s no lack of good in the world – it’s just not organized”, and Ian replies, “And the other side always is.”
9. We Could Have Won
The old footy coach in me says we could have won. YES had a vision. NO had only “no”. We should have packed out the MCG, got big Australian acts to play, got Collingwood’s Norm Smith winner Bobby Hill up on the stage, and the Diamonds netball team that stood by their Indigenous teammate and won the world championship. When this campaign began, YES was ahead. We lost to a dirty campaign – dirty in a new radioactive waste sort of way. We can despair but something else I go back to again and again are the words written by Patrick Dodson inside the cover of a book of mine, “The struggle never ends; the reward is the people you meet along the way”. Don’t isolate on social media. Stay in touch. There are millions of us.
10. Follow The Money
If I were to write a book on The Voice referendum, my first question would be who funded the NO campaign, and why?
I grew up in community, worked with community. I understood the “Voice” as acknowledging the unique position in which we have put indiginous Australia. It was an opportunity to discuss or yarn with community about the services , policy we impose; government services in particular do not consult or inform on the ground. Outcomes would be improved if community were partnered and heard
Be honest. YES lost because it was a bad model/question and the campaign was poor. There were plenty of sound reasons for voting NO. You just refuse to allow them to destroy your narrative.
Thanks for this Martin. I’ve been listening to variants of the No argument since I was a kid in the 70s and I am so utterly sick of them. The result, to me, was entirely predictable but still a crying shame. The only positive thing I’m taking out of this is that there are millions of Australians who have good hearts and generosity, and I hope something someday can change in the future.
Martin Flanagan and so many others have failed to acknowledge the truth.
The ALP stole a very simple request for constitutional recognition and conflated it to a proposed centralised bureaucracy they called the VOICE.
For 12 months clear thinking people asked for more details on how the VOICE might address real problems in indigenous communities. How would it work? People with powerful resources like the National Party investigated and tried to get details. No details were provided. That was not confusion, it was a deliberate refusal to inform.
The No campaign slogan was born out of this refusal. They won’t tell you – you don’t know- so best vote no. Simplified to – if you don’t know , vote no.
A reasonable conclusion is that the ALP did not have any details to share. They could not articulate how it would work because they didn’t know. The slogan could have been – if they don’t know, vote no.
When people said ‘I don’t know ‘ they weren’t confusion. They weren’t ignorant or uneducated. They were starved of real information. Deliberately!
Not one person who claims they understood,
Not one, has come forward to explain how another bureaucracy in Canberra would solve real problems in indigenous communities.
So people followed the lead of indigenous people like Warren and Jacinta, and concluded that VOICE would not help.
FYI a bottom up approach to management, as learnt from NGOs when distributing aide, is the most effective model. This was clearly explained in the words “committee” and the PM’s words “comprised of and elected by First Nations people”. Anybody who voted against these words is content with the past ills of top-down, administered by people who do not know the reality of what is going on on the ground. Early in my Bachelor of Education, our Elder gave us a piece of paper and tasked us with getting it to the end of the room, in the most efficient manner. All sorts of aeroplane designs were trialled, then one guy crumpled it up and threw it. We looked at him and realised he just solved the problem. This is what a committee from the people can do. FYI this is beginning to occur in my State as I have already been involved with Indigenous education advise from the people and from those who are on the ground. There is a new wave and era ahead.
I respect the way you have described the situation here Robbo, yet as it’s been said time and time again, the Voice was to be the first steps towards implementing a change which would endure across changing governments and allow for the first steps in better addressing indigenous affairs. The detail simply wasn’t required because it was that simple, a voice at the table to join the other voices which includes (dirty) mining and other corporate trade boards.
You’re smart, you know too well that “do the same thing, get the same results” and yet Australians effectively elected to “do the same thing”.
This was about starting the journey of a thousand miles, nothing more than that. What Dutton did was make it political, when in fact he had the only opportunity of his professional career to stand up as a genuine person (cough) and put aside cliques political opposition and simply agree to support the nation’s vote. Let the people look at it and decide without a bipartisan cloud thrust upon them.
Want the sobering truth. The hoards of baby boomers and those white, males, over 55 in regional areas will pass on and the generation coming through will ultimately make the much needed changes to indigenous affairs in our country and all the vitriol that’s spewed forth from the NO votersbin this campaign will be for absolutely nothing. Whilst it wasn’t to be this time, it will change, guaranteed.
20ish people work for another central bureaucracy was never going to be any better than past attempts.
Try a different approach. Australia already has 10 Federal Territories for various reasons. Is there a good reason not to create a First Nation Territory of Australia. Such a Territory might be allowed representation in Federal Parliament in a similar way to NT or ACT. But other possibilities exist as with other Territories in Australia and indigenous Territories in other countries like Canada. Like other Territories, such a Territory would represent the people of that Territory by normal democracy. The Territory might control education, welfare, housing, law and order, etc. depending on the Federal ACT that created it. Laws made within the Territory would only apply to Territory citizens and visitors. As is the case with existing Territories – or in a similar way to local municipalities. Outside the Territory citizens would be subject to the laws of the host State and/or Federal laws – just like it is now for every State and Territory. This detail would be determined by agreements between the Territory and host States. There is nothing racist or separatist about creating a ‘Territory’ that First Nation communities could choose to join. And there is no land crab involved. Aboriginal lands are already recognised. All you would be doing is recognising that people living on those lands belong to an indigenous community. Surprise! But it’s not for me to ask for something like this, it would be something indigenous communities would ask for and only if THEY want it.
Hi Martin
It was good to read this today. I’m feeling sad and bruised over the referendum result and your humanity and clarity on the issue was something I needed.
Thanks for this.
Thanks for your quite but uplifting inspiration it helps us all cope the issues that face our nation.
Erudite and significant article, unwrapping the diabolical and nefarious intent of the No campaign.
If it wasn’t disinformation then all we’re left with is racism. Either way, our nation is in trouble.
Meanwhile, 60% of people are still waiting for a proper explanation on what the voice was going to be and why it was needed. Any time the question was put, the answer was you don’t need to know. Just trust us. If you don’t trust us, you’re
You speak the truth and I hold your actions in high regard. I am Warradjuri, and I have spend my adult life teaching in community, yet some friends and family were dismissive of my experience. They thought the referendum for Indigenous acknowledgement would make two laws for two races. I saw it as bringing forth wisdom to enrich all of our lives. I would like to see more Artists, Sports persons and tour operators, express a silent but “deadly” protest to the deceptive and false manner in which that Opposition leader managed his business. The Australian people have had racism aroused and it will take the shock of cancelled rock concerts, sports teams refusing to play in Australia and a closed Opera House, for the people to realise what a terrible act they have done.
Completely wrong here, Shane. No, it wasn’t DISinformation — it was a total lack of relevant information. Many have tried to make this point before but the ideological Left just don’t seem to want to hear it. That is not altogether surprising because they seem to operate so much on the vibe rather than facts and sustained reasoned argument. What was initially pitched as the best way forward to actually closing the Gap morphed into what looked like an anti-democratic and divisive bid for sovereignty. The YES campaign seemed unequal to the task of explaining that this was not the case, but it wasn’t helped by the fact that some outspoken members of the Aboriginal community got aboard the moment and appeared to be pushing for exactly that. It started to become a trust issue around – we just don’t know where all this his leading. Having spent a long time generating an apparently unified Voice from the Heart, the YES campaign had no answer to the clear and consistent messaging coming from Mundine and Price, further brought down by the more radical murmurings from and Lidia Thorpe and Michael Mansell.
Having lost the vote, it will help precisely no-one if you find yourself drawn to the coward’s castle of castigating the other side as racists. A similar approach bedeviled the SSM campaign where anyone who raised a vote in disagreement was castigated as a bigot, rather than someone with a different view. Better to go with the Hamish McDonald view expressed above where he suggests we need to look for the common ground and move onto seeking out actual solutions.
Thanks Martin. I needed to hear this.
Cheers, Frank.
The answer to all conflict in History: follow the money. It seems we don’t want indigenous people having a voice that risks going anywhere near a Mining or Energy company’s interests. I liked your vision of an MCG Super concert.
Almost seven years ago on a visit to the land down under I listened to Australians who were incredulous that my America could elect Trump to be president. Today, from far away America, I am incredulous to learn that Australia voted No. I was embarrassed and sad for America seven years ago and today I am sad for Australia. But, the fight in us will on and eventually prevail, on both sides of the equator. It’s a hard fight.