Some interesting data analysis here. I’ll pose the same question as the author:
…by majority vote, Australians have made clear that a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament is not how they want to respond to these crises.
An urgent question emerges — what is?
and a more complicated picture emerges
Racism and bigotry aren’t complicated.
everyone acting like it’s some great mystery… simple truth is that Australians are profoundly entitled, racist, arseholes. anyone who has lived in any other culture and then returned will agree.
I’ve lived overseas and I disagree.
Australia is no more racist than some other developed and developing nations, and there are countries with more racism than Australia.
Travel to different cities in the US and notice how neighbourhoods are subtlety segregated by race.
Talk to any European about their thoughts on gypsies.
Ask Japanese about their thoughts on Koreans.
Look up the usage of the word “keling” in south east asian cultures.What we have in Australia is perhaps a more overt style of referring to cultures or differences, but the barriers to integrate with Australian culture is much lower than other countries. For some migrants that have come from cultures where they had a racial privilege (e.g. caste systems), it could now be confronting to them that their standing in Australia is lowered and equalised.
The way that we establish social bonds (banter, joking around, jabs, insults etc) can also be confusing to foreigners and be perceived as racist, but it’s an old UK way of establishing camaraderie by proving that you can dish out an insult but also take it as well. Like stand-up comedy material, this method is being tamed as time goes on.
One final indicator of racial division is the level of mixed marriages. If it was a serious problem, we would see low levels of marriages between different countries of origin. In the EU, the rate of mixed marriages is about 8% (1 in 12). In Australia, the rate is 3.5x larger at 29%.
I wouldn’t necessarily phrase it like that. There’s a danger of oversimplifying the problem into just good (non-racist) and bad (racist) people and that doesn’t help at all. The problems are systemic and go right to the very core of our nation. Non-Indigenous Australians will continue to make irrational, selfish decisions with regards to Indigenous Australians for as long as they don’t understand why Indigenous culture is important (not just in Australia, but throughout the world) or the truth of their nation’s history. Australia is culturally uneducated and unaware compared to the rest of the world and that has to change for any further progress to be made with regards to recognising Indigenous sovereignty in some form.
no, I’m talking about Australians and their culture. Australians acts like their state is a vital and respected world player, in reality it’s just cemented its place as an arrogant and largely irrelevant post-colonial meme that will be completely subsumed by a more powerful Asian neighbour in the near future. The sad hilarity is that all we’re trying to save back home is petty white hubris.
Australia is already subsumed by the United States.
I’m from the states and I’m not trying to be a dick but Australians think of their country as a player in the great games of statehood? Like… how? Is it because y’all speak English, too? Because America has that spy base in the middle of y’all’s desert?
There are more than a few cities that have a higher population than your entire country.
Australians are profoundly simple. Go through this thread and take a look at all the nit-picking around our ‘totally not racist’ claims; it basically boils down to “we let wealthy people come here so we can racially vilify them for political expedience”.
more then 60% of the country just voted along purely racist lines. we are racist, very racist. people coming here should be forewarned.
I really liked Kath and Kim but are you telling me that their depiction of the average Australian is correct? yikes.
Yeah, I’ve mentioned to some friends and family that my wife and I are moving overseas. I don’t use Facebook or anything, I’ve purposely not engaged in discussions with them about the Voice.
And some of the hate and vitriol has been astounding. Full mask-off Aussie exceptionalism.
The Voice was just the nail in the coffin for us. We’d been considering moving for a while. I wish Aussies really knew how fucked our work culture is. And how shit our pay is relative to the cost of living.
They’re living in a fantastical version of Australia sold to them by a nationalist media.
What country are you planning to move to? General curious what country you think would be better.
I can’t say shit about my full set of motivations without breaking NDAs and doxxing myself unfortunately.
But Australia is worse off environmentally than the public knows. And so many of us that worked in environmental analysis for big engineering firms, which are contracted by government, defence and so on, are gagged.
When people try to blow the whistle, they are put into lengthy court battles which they never win.
I worked on a project a few years ago around water theft, one of the other attached contractors had an analyst go to the media, blowing the lid off the scope of the issue. I have no idea what happened to her exactly, but I know they buried her in court.
I’m moving to Canada, but more to be with friends, and spend the rest of my thirties and onwards enjoying my life. My twenties were brutal, I’m 35 and I’ve never had a holiday. I’ve been an activist for twenty years in Aus as well, this referendum and the result are painful.
This, for instance, is in actuality a much more pressing issue than this 2017 article portrays.
So . . . you’re moving to Canada because our environmentalism and indigenous rights are shit?
Ooh boy, you’re in for a ride if you think it’s bad here.
Fuck, imagine being this stupid.
Imagine me typing
I’m moving to Canada to be with my friends.
And still typing that dogshit-brained shit.
What a perfect example of why I’m moving. What a perfect example of vapid Aussie exceptionalism.
Geez have a fucking whinge mate why don’t you mate.
Oh boohoo someone called out my hypocrisy, this is why I’m leaving wahhwahh.
Does Australia not have anti-SLAPP legislation of any sort?
anyone who has lived in any other culture and then returned will agree
Big call. I’ve spent a few years south east asia. Racism and classism is deeply rooted in their cultural psyche. As a European foreigner you’re the beneficiary of their preconceptions, but talk to pretty much any of them about neighbouring countries, or differing religions and you see a very different picture.
Yes, 1000x yes. Lived there for 18 years, have lived in two other countries so have good reference points. I love Australia, I love Australians. But en masse some disturbing trends come out.
Typical far left way of thinking. Call the people that you want to vote for your ideologies and ideas more hateful words, I’m sure it’ll definitely work for you this time.
You guys are so arrogantly stupid you can’t even figure out the real reason why you lost.
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There’s that arrogant stupidity I mentioned :)
Probably hard to determine but I’d love to see proportion of no voters vs Murdoch news viewership. I feel like every other correlation could probably be tied to that variable.
From what I understand the no campaign focused on social media rather than traditional media. Probably cause they knew Murdoch was already good to go.
I didn’t see a single No ad on television. Yes ads were everywhere though, all over tv (murdoch channels included) and even youtube.
Well I didn’t see either a TV add for either side. I did heard a lot more ‘Don’t know vote No’ than anything else. I’m not sure anecdote is particularly helpful though.
Anecdotes is all we have. You never saw yes advertising, I never saw no advertising.
Voting in Australia is MANDATORY… that’s not how it should be, I voted what I voted because I don’t give a fuck, I’m uninformed and hate the government… in my eyes I vote to save myself a $200 fine, it’s basically blackmail…
Sounds like the opinion of someone who’s never been blackmailed before.😅
I fully support you voting like that, and I still think mandatory voting is better than optional.
What about the, and I’m quoting a couple people I know, “I didn’t know what it was about, so I voted no” votes?
I guess that’s why education seems to have been a key variable. It seems to be not just education, but approach to learning/ knowledge evaluation in general.
My retort to that argument was always along the lines of “do you know the detail of every single policy that the party/candidate you vote for is running with?” And the answer is always invariably ‘no’. For some reason it’s fine to vote for our elected representatives without educating yourself, but not fine to vote for a referendum without educating yourself.
I wish everyone in this camp chose to cast an informal vote instead, there’s a chance the referendum might have eked out a Yes that way.
A family member recons “Don’t know/Unsure” should have been a 3rd option in the ballot, and not counted, as a way to deal with indifferent voters.
Either way I’m disappointed for the 80% indigenous communities that needed our support.
My advice to people who expressed confusion/uncertainty was to ask themselves the same two questions I asked myself on the same sex marriage plebiscite:
- How does this affect you?
- What does it mean to those who want it?
The answer (for someone with a conscience) is usually pretty straightforward.
Great analysis, very readable and a clear message
