Australian national broadcaster ABC has projected three states voted No, effectively defeating the referendum.

Australian national broadcaster ABC has projected three states voted No, effectively defeating the referendum.

  • comfy@lemmy.ml
    6·
    11 months ago

    You’ve actually explained one of the reasons many Indigenous people rejected this: it is just feedback that could simply be ignored by the Senate. That’s powerless, and we’ve seen from royal commissions into Aboriginal deaths in custody that the feedback does get ignored. Why accept such a bad deal, pretending it’s a victory or progress?

    The Black Peoples Union interview with ABC explains why they took the ‘no’ position.

    • MJBrune@beehaw.orgEnglish
      6·
      11 months ago

      I saw this stance and I still don’t know why you wouldn’t want a position to give you more of a platform. It’s still progress to give minority groups a larger platform than they had before.

    • DogMuffinsEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      Just gonna quote my other comment about this video

      I hadn’t heard of the Black Peoples Union before.

      I would caution “progressive no’s”, closet racists, and staunch conservatives from aligning with this idiot.

      Their list of demands includes a few odd statements:

      We also do not acknowledge a treaty/ies as a solution to reconcile the historical and ongoing issues faced by First Nations people. The goal of national and economic liberation will only be achieved once the capitalist and colonial social relations cease to exist in Australia. National liberation will always be an intrinsic part of the revolutionary struggle against capitalism, colonialism and imperialism.

      … and some interesting demands:

      • The abolition of private property.
      • The return of all crown land and waters and all land and waters used as a primary resource to the custodianship of their rightful Indigenous owners.
      • The redirecting of taxes related to land and water usage and ownership paid by non-Indigenous homeowners to their relevant Indigenous Nation.

      Old mate continuously refers to the voice as tokenistic, “there’s other advisory bodies” and “this one doesn’t even have any power” et cetera. I’m not aware of any other advisory bodies that were backed by the constitution with a clear mandate from the Australian people. Imagine a government ignoring the voice to parliament when the Australian populace has supported them.

      This guy’s whole argument is “no compromise”. He wanted the referendum rejected, to galvanise first nations people to demand more. That’s not how modern democracy works in Australia.

      It’s also very frustrating that he happily perpetuates the misunderstanding that he somehow speaks for First Nations people generally. That’s pretty fucked IMO.