The Yes campaign and the corporate media might be in mourning, but in truth, the referendum result is a win for all Australians. Here’s why.

The result of the weekend’s referendum was known within an hour or so of polls closing. Australians emphatically voted against constitutionally enshrining an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Nationally, just 39.3 per cent affirmed the proposition, while a whopping 60.7 per cent made known their disapproval. Every state rejected it, along with the Northern Territory, home to the highest proportion of Indigenous residents in the nation.

The result was as definitive as the opinion polls had suggested. Once postal votes are accounted for, the No vote will likely swell some more.

The referendum debate subjected Australians to months of bickering and division. With some campaigners cynically framing the debate as a de facto empathy test or a vote on the value of Indigenous lives, the referendum took an especially heavy toll on many Aboriginal Australians.

However, as the dust settles on Saturday’s result, what are the positives all Australians can take away from our nation’s 45th referendum?

1. Indigenous Equality Reaffirmed

In 1967, over 90 per cent of Australians voted in favour of including Indigenous people in the census and empowering the federal government to legislate for Aboriginal people. That referendum took place in a decade that saw the full political equality of Aboriginal Australians affirmed, including their right to vote and stand for political office.

Almost 60 years later, Australians were effectively asked if Indigenous Australians should receive unequal political rights via a permanent race-based advisory body in Canberra. Their resounding rejection of the 2023 proposal race was a conspicuous reaffirmation of the 1967 referendum.

Thus, for more than five decades, our nation’s body politic has maintained remarkable consistency in its belief in the fundamental equality of all Australians, regardless of race. Put another way, the majority of the nation believes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians do not need to be pandered or condescended to for the simple reason that they are already our equals.

2. National Unity Fortified

While the referendum debate was deeply divisive, the eventual outcome was clear and resounding. A hefty majority of Australians agree that there are far more constructive ways to address Indigenous disadvantage than the one recently offered.

Note that a constitutionally-enshrined advisory body in Canberra was not the only thing rejected on Saturday. The Uluru Statement from the Heart — the political manifesto behind the Voice — effectively argued for two competing Australian sovereignties.

“The invasion that started at Botany Bay is the origin of the fundamental grievance between the old and new Australians,” the document argues. “Our sovereignty preexisted the Australian state and has survived it.”

Two competing Australias, divided along ethnic lines, perpetually battling for the upper hand in Canberra? It was a recipe for an ugly but permanent national division. Whether or not most voters were aware of the Uluru Statement’s more radical aims, they have repudiated it — and future generations will thank them.

3. Identity Politics Rejected

Over the last decade, we have seen a concerted effort from many quarters to reduce people to their physical attributes, and reward or hinder them accordingly.

Identity politics is a reductionistic way of viewing the world, and an anaemic way of viewing our fellow human travellers, who are made in God’s image as one-of-a-kind individuals.

Cultural Marxism has taken this a step further, using race to categorise people as “oppressed” and “oppressor”. Western Marxists have been very successful at weaponising Indigenous people against Western institutions which — ironically — have been uniquely successful at protecting their dignity and equality in law.

It is a credit to voters and a blessing for Australia that such a strong majority have resisted this cynical ploy, choosing to view Indigenous Australians as individuals, not avatars of a political cause.

 

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