By Denis Bright
Australian voters have rejected a great opportunity to enshrine commitment to an advisory voice on Indigenous people in the Australian constitution. For many older and disadvantaged Australians, the proposed constitutional changes were perceived to be threatening changes.
Racial and social divisions did not commence with preparations for the Voice referendum.
As a royal navy navigator and later buccaneer, William Dampier (1651-1715) made three voyages to WA and offered this interpretation of our Indigenous people after his second voyage in 1697 with his infamous throw-away line:
“The inhabitants of this country are the miserabilist people in the world.”
Racial divisions were embedded in Captain Cook’s landfalls in Eastern Australia in 1770 and even his earlier visits to Tahiti and New Zealand. Some Indigenous people were killed by the crew in a reflexive action against the local population.
The Endeavour struck a reef near Cooktown in North Queensland. The Endeavour was beached for repairs. Here the Guugu Yimithirr people lead by Coomen assisted crew members who were ill or disoriented. The crew were offered food and water. However, misunderstandings did occur in the Endeavour River encounter. At least one Indigenous person was killed on 17 June 1770 by a member of the Endeavour’s crew and perhaps others injured in the unequal skirmish.
Despite the assistance offered at Cooktown to the crew of the Endeavour, Captain Cook had orders from the British Crown to take possession of lands deemed to be terra nullius or nobody’s land.
The momentum of the successive 1967 referendum continued in high court decisions from Mabo v Queensland in 1992 (No1 and 2), and Wik Peoples v Queensland in 1996. Favourable rulings continued in 2002 with Yorta Nation v Victoria (2002) over land and water rights in the Goulburn and Murray River Districts which were upheld by the High Court.
Throughout the campaign, the mainstream media largely endorsed this claim of the social and racial divisiveness over acceptance of the Voice proposal. The outcomes of the No campaign are now history.
A Legitimate Positive Request Rejected
The Guardian (15 October 2023) has detailed results of the Voice Referendum by states, territories and even electorates. There were several electorates with Yes Votes below 20 per cent including the electorates of Maranoa (15.9 per cent) and Flynn (16.4 per cent). In juxtaposition, over thirty seats supported the Yes case with results of strong support for the Yes Case in Melbourne (78.1 per cent) and Grayndler (74.5 per cent).
The results of the Voice Referendum were close to the predictions of the best opinion polls as summarized by ABC News.
In support of the commitment by Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles to moving forward after a day of infamy for indigenous reconciliation, our political future needs responsible risk-taking to address long-standing divisions particularly in regional and outer suburban areas across Australia.
Lack of commitment to Indigenous reconciliation is embedded in blind spots about other social, economic and cultural tensions. The Brisbane River forms a divide between the more affluent electorate of Ryan and some of the more challenged precincts in the federal electorate of Blair between Moggill and Riverview.
This divide was covered in two of my previous articles for AIM Network in 2017 (here and here).
Community leaders have been reluctant to foster better public transport links across the social divide between the more adjacent growth areas on the fringes of Brisbane in the Springfield District and the Ripley Valley and the Ipswich CBD. Similar public transport black-spots exist between Moggill and the northside fringes of Ipswich at Karana Downs (Brisbane), Mt. Crosby, Kholo and Karalee (Ipswich).
Historically, Labor leaders from the Ipswich District were adept at responding to the needs of constituents. Even prior to 1900, a Labor member from the Rosewood Coalfields was elected to state parliament. It was more difficult to gain a federal representative because the federal electorate of Moreton extended into rural areas. When federal Labor member, James Wilkinson was defeated in 1906, it took 55 years for veteran Labor leader Bill Hayden to represent Ipswich from 1961. He defeated a popular local LNP minister in the Menzies Government during an unexpected short-term recession associated with the tightening of monetary policy.
Despite the controversies like Labor’s opposition to the war in Vietnam, Bill Hayden’s staff excelled in responding to the concerns within his electorate on mainstream local issues. His vote increased at every election until 1969. There was a close result in 1975 in Oxley after the dismissal of Gough Whitlam but there were strong swings back to Labor as early as 1977.
As in other Labor heartland electorates across Australia, support for the Labor Party was insufficient to halt the No campaign with its emphasis on fears of an advisory Voice Council to express the concerns of Indigenous communities to federal governments of differing persuasions.
There is a significant dichotomy in the results of the Voice referendum between Ryan in Brisbane and Blair. On a divisional basis, there was a No vote of 47.3 per cent in Ryan. In Blair the No vote was 69.8 per cent. The Yes vote achieved good results even in comfortable outer-suburban polling booths in Ryan despite the mortgage stresses facing new home-owners.
The Yes vote was strong in in the electorate of Ryan although some mortgage stress was possibly still evident in the results from Brookfield (47.8 per cent) and Moggill (48.3 per cent).
Across the federal electoral divide Blair, the Yes vote struggled to exceed 30 per cent at many polling booths. Weak support for the Yes case brought results extended was evident in Riverview (27.6 per cent), Karalee (30.6 per cent) and Tivoli (29.6 per cent) which can be located on the map provided. As expected, the Yes vote dipped in rural and semi-rural areas with a No vote of 85.4 per cent at Tarampa and 78.7 per cent at Walloon, 77.3 per cent in Rosewood township and 80.7 per cent at Grandchester.
The Australian constitution is indeed difficult to change. Change is virtually impossible without bipartisan support. The Republic Referendum on 6 November 1999 was not carried in any of the states but succeeded in the ACT with a Yes vote of 63.3 per cent in juxtaposition with a No Vote of 62.6 per cent in Queensland at that time.
Only eight of the forty-five referenda options since federation have been carried.
Even formation of the Commonwealth of Australia itself prior to 1900 proved to be politically divisive.
The federation referendum question had to be put to the all-male NSW electorate on two occasions. WA was a late starter in the constitutional stakes. This colony of the British Empire was omitted from the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 as carried by both houses of the British parliament.
Cheers to the remote Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander communities in electorates like Kennedy and Leichhardt in Queensland who put their faith in the Yes case despite opposition from local LNP and conservative independent members.
In the post-Voice era, neoconservative representatives will find it difficult to avoid acting on local concerns about the need for diversity of employment that is compatible with acute local concerns.
There are core Labor values which are compatible with a contribution to Northern Development and Indigenous reconciliation through water conservation schemes, community development initiatives, infrastructure investment and sustainable programmes to diversify rural and remote economies.
Even at the best of times, tourism services into exotic historical, cultural and scenic spots in the Queensland outback during the cooler months were underdeveloped. Opportunities existed for greater Indigenous involvement in tourism at places like Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park.
Although the Waanyi people of this national park area received their native title claim in 2010, the proprietor of Adel’s Grove relied largely on interstate grey nomads to operate its accommodation and restaurant facilities for guests the last time I visited this site.
More than a century ago, Albert de Lestang (1854-1959) had a much deeper commitment to the local savanna ecosystem. He experimented with the introduction of exotic and native plants at Adel’s Grove and operated a store for passing tourists. Fire destroyed Albert’s dwellings in the 1950s. Fire also destroyed the hub of the accommodation at Adel’s Grove out quite recently. The need for greater Indigenous involvement in local tourism is essential.
With the support of the Queensland government, the Waanyi people negotiated an agreement with the zinc mining operations in this locality which continued until operations ceased temporarily in 2015. A history of the progressive association between mining and the Waanyi people is available online. The monograph was developed by the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining at UQ.
Reaching across the political aisle at state and federal levels can assist in overcoming the disappointments of the Voice Referendum results.
There are places in North West Queensland which could enthuse tourists during the winter months. The outreach of current tourism access only taps the surface of the vast array of exotic places which dot North West Queensland. Similar resources exist in the Cairns Hinterland and on Cape York from the days when mining activity moved into these remote frontiers even prior to the turn of the last century.
The (locally) famous mine tram tunnel at Hightville. This tunnel was built in 1914 for the tram line that carted copper ore from the Wee Macgregor mine down the ridge to the Ballara siding, for rail transport to Townsville via Cloncurry. The Wee Macgregor mine is on the other side of the tunnel from where this photograph was taken. I would not venture through the tunnel if you are afraid of bats, there is quite a colony roosting in there. May 2007.
Many potential historic relics spots are on private grazing properties and operated in the federation era (1901-14) prior to the opening of Mt. Isa Mines.
Readers can continue their activism with a new focus after the disturbing results of the Voice referendum. History may soon exonerate Anthony Albanese for his commitment to failed constitutional change. Perhaps this result can be a springboard for pragmatic action to address the wider economic, social and cultural divides in Australia. There will be little grassroots resistance to these commitments which is what the electorate expects from a Labor government.
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