The Voice Referendum: A Tale of Two Territories
When virtue signalling meets reality.
The Australian Capital Territory was the only jurisdiction in the country where a majority of Australians voted for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
The ‘Yes’ vote in the ACT was 62.2 per cent.
But here’s what’s really interesting. In the Northern Territory, the ‘Yes’ vote was a measly 35.6 per cent.
To put that in context, the NT has the highest percentage of Aboriginal people in the nation, and yet it overwhelmingly rejected the Voice.
Meanwhile, the ACT, which has the lowest percentage of Aboriginal people but the highest percentage of public servants, voted overwhelmingly in favour.
Virtue signalling, faux concerned, paternalistic elite … meet reality.
It just goes to show how out of touch so many of those who work in the nation’s bureaucratic and political echo chamber are with the rest of the country they are supposed to be serving.
Wailing and Gnashing
Comedian Magda Szubanski, who promised to record the names of people who campaigned against the Voice, lamented on Twitter:
“I’m so deeply saddened that this has been the result. To all our beautiful First Nations people… my heart goes out to you tonight I wish this had been different. Please know that there are millions of us who love and treasure and support you, that we hear your Voice and we will continue to walk with you.”
Meanwhile, high-profile lawyer and social justice activist Kon Karapanagiotidis tweeted:
Not going to lie. I feel so deeply ashamed and embarrassed to be an Australian tonight. I’m so sorry to Indigenous people for failing you today.
Someone hand this pair a tissue and reassure them that it’s not half as bad as they fear.
The biggest proportion of ‘No’ votes came from states and territories with the highest Indigenous populations!
Not even Lingari, the electorate with Uluru in it, voted ‘Yes’.
With just over half the vote counted, ‘No’ was leading by a whopping 63.8 per cent to 36.2 per cent of the vote in that electorate, where 40 per cent of the population identify as Indigenous!
So much for the “Voice from the Heart”. It was clearly more like the Voice from the Canberra Bubble.
Resounding No
The Lingari result indicates that Shadow Indigenous Affairs Minister Jacinta Price, who hails from Alice Springs, was speaking for many more Indigenous people than she was given credit for.
By contrast, consider this:
Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney couldn’t even convince her own electorate to back the Voice.
Her Barton electorate in New South Wales voted 55.7 per cent to 44.3 per cent against the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Not even indigenous leader Noel Pearson could persuade his ancestral homeland on the merits of the Voice.
His Far North Queensland electorate of Leichhardt was last night breaking sharply to ‘No’. Only 33.5 per cent of voters had been bothered to write ‘Yes’ on their ballot paper.
As you can see in the graphic above, the seats that, according to the 2021 Census, had the largest Indigenous populations as a proportion of voters also voted overwhelmingly against the Voice.
So Magda and her inner-city social justicey friends really should quit their faux tears.
False Foundation
It was never the case that 80 per cent of Indigenous people wanted a Voice to Parliament. That claim was always bogus, and Australians refused to swallow it.
It was only ever the case that 80 per cent of 300 Indigenous people surveyed online many months ago wanted an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
The referendum result shows that many, many Indigenous people were not interested in the Voice and will not be crying in their cereal this morning with Magda.
As for Kon’s embarrassment about being Australian…
Don’t be embarrassed, Kon. Be proud. Ours is a great country where people are judged on the content of their character, rather than on the colour of their skin. And the majority of Australians — including Indigenous Australians — affirmed that again on Saturday!
Australians — Indigenous and non-Indigenous — saw through the emotional blackmail, and took a stand against the virtue-signalling top end of town by voting ‘No’ to a divided Australia.
We are one and free!
___
Originally published at The James Macpherson Report.
Subscribe to his Substack here for daily witty commentary.
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Black + White saw through the Lies. Poor Warren Mundine was viciously attacked afterwards on SBS .I listened to the whole interview–wish more people had and learnt the Truth ! It’s now time to find out who is holding the millions in Trust Funds from Mining Royalties , etc for each Land Council, and, find out why these are not being used to ameliorate the conditions of their people ? Elizabeth in SA ( the most deprived area and the most traditional Labor voters ) voted over-whelmingly “NO”. Albanese and his Marxist mates will not stop until they destroy our democracy by a Referendum to abolish the Monarchy as our Head of State , and, then bring in “The Voice “. Whilst I have no time for monarchy, I will vote “No “as I did in 1999 because it opens the way to a dictatorship .
I suggest Mr. Dutton not waste too much effort on the Teal electorates , but, concentrates on a Constitution education programme for the disaffected Working Class electorates who voted “NO “. Liberal PM Menzies remained in power for many years because he was loved by the Working Class .
YES CAMPAIGN initiated by PM Albanese was a resounding NO by the majority of voters are not racist, stupid, idiots and dinosaurs. Australia is one of the greatest nation on earth, compassionate and loving with good living standards. PM Albanese was arrogant and wanted to conduct this very crucial referendum to change the constitution all by himself. Added to it, some of the YES indigenous campaigners descended into verbal attack, and our PM did not call them out and allowed them to go on. There was no unity and a passion to vote YES followed by lack of real truths behind this referendum. So PM and the Labor Party heavies just accept this verdict and move on. I personally believe if Bill Shorten was heading this campaign he would have done a better job than PM Albo who has divided the nation plus $450 Millions of Tax Payers dollars down the drains. PM Albo you have lost all credibility, eat humble pie and do something genuine to heal the nation with the support of all communities and leaders. Our nation need our prayers.
Yes the stats speak loud and clear.
Thanks James for all your great articles including this one.