Australia sets stage for landmark Indigenous rights referendum
Al JazeeraJun 08, 2023
The Facts
Early voting began on Monday in the Northern Territory, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia as part of a referendum on whether an Indigenous advisory body to Australia's parliament will be enshrined in the country's constitution.
Due to a public holiday in the remaining parts of the country, the start of early voting in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia did not begin until Tuesday.
The Spin
Narrative A
A Yes vote for the Indigenous Voice referendum is a pathway toward a shared and common future, while a No vote would reaffirm that Indigenous people don’t matter and that they lack societal and governing status. This can only reiterate the hurt that First Nations people have suffered through generations of discrimination, exclusion, and outright theft.
Narrative B
Some Indigenous groups that are disenfranchised and uninterested in the constitutional change will have their hard-fought sovereignty destroyed if the new parliamentary voice is ratified, as it will attempt to assimilate and fold them into a colonial template. Only a No vote will leave their independence to govern their people in tact.