Australians vote No in referendum that promised change for First Nations people but couldn't deliver | CNN
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With a two-letter word, Australians have struck down the first attempt at constitutional change in 24 years, major media outlets reported, a move experts say will inflict lasting damage on First Nations people and suspend any hopes of modernizing the nation’s founding document.

With a two-letter word, Australians have struck down the first attempt at constitutional change in 24 years, major media outlets reported, a move experts say will inflict lasting damage on First Nations people and suspend any hopes of modernizing the nation’s founding document.

Early results from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) suggested that most of the country’s 17.6 million registered voters had written No on their ballots, and CNN affiliates 9 News, Sky News and SBS all projected no path forward for the Yes campaign.

The proposal, to recognize Indigenous people in the constitution and create an Indigenous body to advise government on policies that affect them, needed a majority nationally and in four of six states to pass.

  • seiryth@lemmy.worldEnglish
    244·
    9 months ago

    It’s interesting to see the breakdown by electorate. Electorates close to Melbourne and Sydney cbds voted yes. The further out of vic and nsw, the more the no grows.

    Qld, wa, NT and SA didn’t have the same problem. Blanket no.

    Tldr, the progressive part of the country that wants this is city focused. The rest of the country has a long way to go.

    • fiat_lux@kbin.social
      91·
      9 months ago

      Electorates close to Melbourne and Sydney cbds voted yes.

      The centre of Sydney has one of the largest populations of ATSI people, not sure about Melbourne, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s true there too.

      I think it’s easier to see people as people when you live closely with a lot of different variations on the base model.

      • seiryth@lemmy.worldEnglish
        41·
        9 months ago

        Jimmy Carr was on Joe Rogan (I know he’s awful but it was a decent episode) recently and was talking about how Hitler worked out propaganda works best when the “other” feels alien, which is why he closed down clubs in the 30s. Seeing Jews as “one of us” through clubs and hospitality made the propaganda against them ineffective because they were just seen as one of the people and this Hitler guy was just a nut, the whole movie cabaret being about it.

        I think you’re right. Melbourne is an amazing melting pot of people, so it’s difficult to be not emphatic towards a cause that would improve their QOL