Australia to vote in historic Indigenous Voice referendum 

Funny how with the exception of Sky news on youtube no Australian news channels allow comments???????????

Colloquially known as Alice Springs? You mean officially called Alice Springs.

Aboriginals have voting rights. So they already have a voice to parliament. Just like every other Australian. Giving a certain ethnic group the right to have a ' special advisory committee' to parliament while other groups don't get that right is discriminatory and the Aussies rightfully rejected that.

Truth is that most indigenous are not disadvantaged. There are some who live in remote communities who do live in abject poverty. For decades the government has provided up to $37 billion a year to hundreds of indigenous organisations and the money never seems to get where it is needed. These organisations refuse to be audited. Some of our biased media SBS, even suggest it inappropriate for these organisations to be audited as they see it as an accusation and insult. Clearly due diligence and professionalism is something they have not been taught. They have an elected indigenous Minister for Indigenous Affairs whose job is to listen to concerns and help them. She currently claims she can't help without a Voice in the constitution. The authors of the Voice are militant activists who have been demanding reparations for decades. Anyone identifying as indigenous in Australia gets free education, free university and free medical. It is the activists who live in urban cities that use the disadvantaged as leverage to demand more money. They already control 50% or so of Australia with indigenous land councils Problem with the voice is. Our Prime Minister refuses to provide the terms and conditions of the voice before the referendum. We don't know the consequences of a voice enshrined in the constitution. Voting yes is like signing a blank contract. There is no problem recognising indigenous people in the constitution. But putting a voice in the constitution that can make representations to the parliament and executive is not advisable. If they feel they are not being listened to, they can then make applications to the High Court. No one can say definitely how the high court will rule. This could see the voice having the equal power of an unelected parliament. This is the problem. Would be like giving away your country. This video is very one sided propaganda. The yes side have gaslighted the no side by claiming lies and misinformation. Fact is our Prime Minister refuses to provide any detail of how the voice will work or its power. Should never agree to something when you don't know the full consequences.

Every state voted NO. Good on you Australia for not falling for the racist card

If you're an Australian citizen then you are eligible to vote at local, state, and federal levels. Is the Voice trying to say indigenous people don't have this?

The Northern Territory voted no.

Why would you want to be classed as a perpetual victim in the constitution for eternity, there is no avenue for improvement if that becomes the case? Incentivised victimhood and welfare is no good for anyone, unfortunately some see it as a career choice.

To those who think voting "No" would be racist, how can it be racist to vote against a motion that would distinguish one group of people on the basis of their race?

I think a big issue with the vote is. Though first nation people went through truly horrendous crimes against humanity 235 years ago, people today are still being blamed for crimes they didnt commit themselves, nor is anyone alive who had those crimes committed against. Im Australian but i wont be made accountable for what happened 235 years ago. I have nothing against aboriginal folk. They were the original custodians of our great land and i respecr that immensly, but it must be stated that change must happen on the individual front and many dont accept that and continue to blame white man for the ills they currently experience. Many dont work, commit crime at young ages and its violent and brutal. There are places not far away from big cities etc that you dont walk alone in because you get mobbed or worse if youre a woman and those issues are felt amongst every community. I must express that this does not apply to all aboriginals but there is a phenomena called pattern recognition and when say, a farmer is digging a line to put in irrigation and he comes across aboriginal bones buried in that land. He loses that land. Its a very layered and multilateral problem than many face and frankly many are sick and tired of being made to feel guilty for crimes they didnt commit. There is a huge problem with the guilt tripping and those who voted no are those who are concerned of the old saying "give an inch and theyll take a mile" for good or bad the people of australia dont want to be railroaded into possible unforseen repercussions. I do hope that some good comes out of this eventually for the aboriginal people but it must start at an individual level. Then we can move forward.

The results are in; a resounding NO, every State except the ACT voted no and 60% of voters voted no.

Look.. the choice is stick to your Historical way of life or integrate into the wider society. But they do neither, it seems.

Lucky the Japanese didnt found Australia be none left

Aboriginal people are going to have to make do with equal rights.

had this gone through, it would have had no benefit for the vast majority of aboriginals, it would have enriched some career politicians , NGO's, activists and that's it. It would have created more division, resentment and marked Australia as effectively an apartheid state, hyperbole you say, well it all starts there when how you are treated, rights are dictated by your skin colour or how long your ancestors have been in a country. Well done Australia for rejecting this

Not just indigenous people but all Australians rejected the divisive Voice.

It is time to bring in DNA testing! If you haven't got a grandparent who is aboriginal then you aren't Aboriginal!

A historic and overwhelming rejection of "The Voice"

Breathing a sigh of relief today. Thank goodness we didn’t take the first step towards bringing apartheid laws into our constitution. With one group of constitutional privilege based on race for one group of people, and nothing for everybody else. Wrong in principle, the public recognised it as such.

I just read the Guardian's view on the voice referendum and it is skewed. I have been a Labor and Greens voter since I first voted 50 years ago, no more. I grew up with Aboriginals in the country and recognise what Jacinta Nampijinta Price says about her Aboriginal culture and customs. Self determination involves accountability and personal responsibility.

Vote conforms to the usual pattern, those who don't live near large populations of aboriginals have the rosiest view of them.

I hope this means an end to trying to assert a guilt position on me for things that happened hundreds of years ago, that the mysterious and vitriolic supposed "Uluru Statement" will be buried and that we can find a way to bridge the divide that Albanese has crafted into our fabric, ironically by not listening to the advice of our supposed indigenous leaders. I hope too that those who have adminstered the almost $100M/day spent over more than a decade, supposedly on assisting our indigenous brothers and sisters will be held to account and that those who are truly in need of support (ie. not the leigons of people illegitimately claiming Aboriginal heritage) will at last benefit in the long run. What an almightily expensive and embarrassing cluster-f--- this has been. Time to look forward and move together without the victim mindset and with purpose! Love and peace - Dave

The Voice is not a path to reconciliation, and harmony it is a path to entrench structural racism within our nation's constitution. Something that should be abhorrent to all Australians but particularly so to Indigenous Aboriginal, and Torres Strait Islander’s. So please Greens, and The ALP don’t lecture and moralise any Australian on our tolerance, open-mindedness, or our almost universal acceptance of the Aboriginal people. The Voice is fluff, popular, crowd-pleasing, and overt virtue signalling, encouraging intolerance, narrow-mindedness, and dogmatism. Yet beyond this reality. The Voice is another expensive misuse of money that could and indeed should be actually being used to improve the lives of Australians. And perhaps even used to improve the lives of all Australians in need, without any thought to their race? Or their cultural background! Victimhood culture has taken over the Australian political landscape. Victimhood culture is another technique in obtaining power, and silencing opposition. The moment Australia stepped over the line from equality to a favoured group, we took a massive misstep. Vote NO NO to this scam

So do Chinese nationals, with loyalties to the PRC, get a voice? Would this PRC group be allow to only appoint members that China approves of? How about a Palestinian groups? Should they be allowed to appoint Hamas affiliated people to recommend anti-semetic policies to Australia?

This was not a balanced interview for Yes and No votes. The commentary was skewed to favour a Yes vote, but there is so much detail missing from both campaigns that Australians do not really know what they are voting for.

And what did this reporter mean by "its time for us to reclaim our rightful place"? That tells us nothing. What does that mean please? Maybe an article outlining that, so if its fair I can support them in reclaiming that "rightful place". Also maybe they can show me what my rightful place is too. Thanks in advance.

"our people suffer some of the highest incarceration rates" aka Our people commit a lot of crime

Thank you for a great video. We already have three layers of government, federal, state and local government which have their own administration bureaucrats. We do not need another layer of govt. what we need is an audit and investigation into where the 40billion plus dollars has gone, how it was spent, and why do we still have an open gap? Why is one group in the community being treated differently to the rest of Australia. Victoria for example is broke, so there is not even a spare 10cents to be contributed to anything. We need to audit and disband the current indigenous councils, bodies and councils and the niaa and any elders that are supposed to be handling funding, and bring in one body that is functional, honest, audited, responsible, integral, and proper governance. We cannot keep wasting taxpayer dollars which the Australian people work hard for proving services etc….we need to stop duplicating services whereby it’s all tied up in bureaucracy and court systems. If they want change this is what needs to happen. Blessings to all Australians. This was a great country but we are being invaded by greedy selfish people. It’s a NO until proven otherwise. Blessings..🇦🇺🙏 We need a transparent and honest audit and investigation into why there are still gaps especially with all the money that has been given to these organisations. There should be no cracks if the gaps closed were closed properly. Super glue doesn’t work anymore as people have their eyes opened now to all the dishonest and divisive dealings. This is australia, let’s just get our country back to being the country it was. Enough of the coercion, gaslighting, fear mongering and division. We are hard workers and we should be leaders in this day and age. No to division, and no to racism and no to being played by bullies.

The past should never be forgotten but it should not be use as an excuse to avoid progress.

If they had a referendum on recognition it would have passed 97%. Putting the voice in mucked that up. Forming a voice but not in referendum. So many things to decide Treaty also a possibility.

OK, THIS GUIT TRIP IS GETTING OLD, PEOPLE MOVE ON, AND LETS ALL FOCUS ON 'KEEPING OUR GREAT COUNTRY THE BEST EVER ANME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THIS IS NOT THE US, CUT THE DRAMA!

Why did Channel 4 reach out to an activist to cover the story; why not a proper journalist?

Please forgive my ignorance as I'm an American just hearing of this vote, but I've consumed a few pieces of content about it now and am still unsure about what this is, exactly. Are Aboriginal people currently not able to vote, or need to use a separate drinking fountain or some such? What would this bill accomplish?

Very one-sided. Will we be getting a video tomorrow that looks at the arguments made from the No side?

Wow, what an unbalanced report. If you live in the UK you need to know this report covers the Yes case (supported by the left side of politics), the Progressive No case (supported by the even more left end of politics) but doesn't even interview anyone from the main No case. Natasha Wanaganeen isn't even from Alice Springs (as she acknowledges in the report) but one of the key indigenous campaigners against the Voice is from Alice Springs, and they didn't interview her. Really poor, biased reporting Channel 4. Wow. Just wow.

So it's either vote no, because it divides Australians by race = You're a racist. Or Vote Yes, because you want Australia divided by race = You're not a racist? Sorry, never sure how media bias will lean. A few questions. What was the infant mortality before whitie came? We don't know, they'd didn't keep records, but if we compare to other tribal groups of the time, infant mortality was almost every other child and another stat if you're referring to the birth to adulthood survival stat, also not good. Looking at it from this perspective shows that the infant mortality rates has dropped significantly since whitie showed up, one might say that's a great achievement, obviously this reporter thinks otherwise. Canada spends more on it's natives then it does on it's military, not even mentioning how much Australia already spends on 3%. Some simply advice. You want your culture to grow and return from the mud of neglect and stagnation? Finish High school, get a job, don't have kids out of wedlock. Sounds pretty simple, it's pretty hard, but nothing worth going ever is.

You mention in the comments, that this person is an activist, but not in the video. The voice was intially meant to be a recognition in our constitution, but it has now ballooned to a body locked into our constitution forever, which will be held by the most extreme activists like the film maker in the video. Australia is one of the greatest multicultural nations in the world and the voice will separate indigenous and non indigenous even futher than they have even been. Its racist , it wont fix anything. And the woman at the end who is voting no was a separate state based on her skin colour, in all other examples in the world that evil and racist. But now its called "progressive no".

Looks like the historical vote went NOPE

I was confused as to why this referendum existed at first, since if the gov't wanted to set up an advisory board they can just... pass legislation. But actually it seems like what this is about is changing the constitution to recognise Aboriginals as a distinct group of people, separate from the rest of Australia, with a distinct set of collective rights that they possess because of that status. Personally, I don't really like the precedent that sets. I'm not really racist for wanting to vote against something like that (or maybe I am, people seem to be redefining the term "racist" to mean something much broader than it initially did, maybe under the new definition I'm extremely racist).

Let's put all this indigenous talk behind us, in reality no one cares, life is to short and people have more important issues to deal with.

That was the waste of an air ticket. It didn’t really explain the proposal at all

Stoneage, marauding tribes is what they were. And in 65,000 yrs invented nothing that wasn't already a stick.!

The biggest no argument for me was reading the yes arguments on the AEC booklet. I live under a rock, I couldn't care less about the news. The AEC booklet was the first notification I even received of this being a thing only 2 weeks prior to the vote. Sat down and read it, I had my mind made up before I even got to the No arguments. The yes arguments was all I needed to say No. My biggest issues reading the yes argument. first that this group would only be aboriginals or torrestraight islanders. Which just struck me in the face of African segregation in America with the "blacks need not apply" signs. Then there was that this could only be voted for by Aboriginals which just throws the entire idea of democracy out the window and gives a single group the right to vote, but not others, this is undemocratic. Then it opens the flood gates, if Aboriginals get their own representative group, should Chinese Australians? What about Scottish Australians? What about mixed race German and Scottish Australians do they get their own special interest group to lobby the government? Where does this end, and if these other groups are denied is that fair and democratic? It can then be claimed the government is racially biased. Lastly is the general vagueness of the argument. There was lots of feel good, we can do this. But no actual statements on how, what methods, what funding, how much funding, and what powers if any and most important what limits to the powers they may gain. None of this was stated by the Yes campaign or government. They essentially wanted us to write a blank cheque and sign a contract before reading it. No voters are not racist, we are untrusting of a government that went full tyrant during the past 3 years out of fear. We are untrusting of politicians that claim something is just harmless when it's a trojan horse to push damaging and corrupt legislation that lines their pockets.

shes more than half white and what knoledge for 65k years? how to make a pointy stick?

if you dont want a high incareration rate, dont commit crimes

We'll all NOT see anything ur in Natasha! Thank God Aussies had brains to vote NO ❤

Would've been better to become a republic and then have their voice attached to it or something

If aboriginals could be given a choice to go back to a pre colonial Australia, reset to exactly how the British found them, they'd utterly reject it. Old language and customs don't treat heart disease, cancer, cataracts. Old language and customs don't carry people through poor growing seasons and natural disasters. Old language and customs don't enlighten you about the rest of the world, the universe. Old language and customs don't prevent the Han Chinese ruling you instead of Anglos. Old language and customs don't give your women and children legal recourse for abuse. Oh the absolute ingratitude and entitlement!

2 things; The proposal was not good enough, to many "may" and vague words, etc. Secondly, there was to much disagreement among the Aboriginals, like 2 camps. A voice or many, many voices and possible division. Something has to be done very soon, to improve the current situation. Agree on one thing.

How funny is it that when someone has a nose ring you already know half of their opinions?

'Native' and 'indigenous' should apply to those who founded the first 'civilisations' in ANY land. For some reason, across the world, WHITE people (and I use the word 'white' on purpose) are not favoured with the same sentiments as if we dropped out of the sky from another planet. If you consider yourself British (not in the over-used Imperial sense but in the Celtic sense, i.e. a Briton) you are a native and indigenous person. Your people built the FIRST EVER KNOWN civilisation here in Britain. And it's high time we began to demand our rights too. Yma o Hyd Merry Caratacus

We all said No.. cause all you guys think your owed this and that.. You already get more benefits then the norm its always want,want,take take give give... No Australia has enough issues with Housing and jobs.. They only pushing because they think there owed more money thats what its all about..

Australia voted correctly on 14/9/23 Overwhelmingly, resoundingly NO. So proud of my fellow citizens. You're the voice, try and understand it Make a noise and make it clear Oh, whoa We're not gonna sit in silence We're not gonna live with fear Oh, whoa This time, we know we all can stand together With the power to be powerful Believing we can make it better Ooh, we're all someone's daughter We're all someone's son

Why is this framing aboriginal people as not having advocacy nor a voice in the current system? Why is the reporting so weird and binary?

Divided? 70% of Abo's voted NO! i don't think qualifies as divided. It qualifies as a Shellacking, ranking with the 2021 Premiership!😂

Why did it not pass? As a foreigner a total. Of the 5 top videos banned comments. How do you expect a citizenry to debate a topic when one bans all commentary, those whom rule do not dictate to the masses, learn this. Full stop. Aboriginals deserve their history to be supported and remembered, but NOT when said policies do not support ALL Australians - that’s what democracy is all about.

Thank you my brother if only people could think like you,the world will be a better nation and it will get better.everyone’s confused about this campaign at the moment and I’m getting sick of all the racist comments from both parties g.grant

Biased piece of journalism - this is why Australian’s voted no.

I had NO IDEA. Then again, I don't really know Jack schitt on the history of australia. But just wow. This is so wrong

Oh well CH4 lost WEF Schwab agenda this time! Did get Schwab man Tusk in Poland but still not a overall majority! Tusk will have a difficult time with open borders for non Europeans, after what happened to 2 Swedish citizens in Brussels!

"Colloquially known as Alice Springs."

This video doesn't have anything to do with what ppl were asked to vote on in that referendum.

Time to just do . Stop looking for an answer and do what's required .

Australia needs no treaties as we are all Australians, we have fought wars etc for all of us. What do think about our bith rights in this land.

If you look at photos from even a hundred years ago which is not that long ago historically you can see that the aboriginal people have been very "diluted" and mixed with Europeans their language tended to faded away a bit from under use due to this....

Advocacy journalism.

As a British man Living in Australia voting yes would and if yes one would be a disaster one may have to pay taves to Aborigines for living there there is enough money to help them yes winning would make no diffreince it would make things worse for the angry people who voted no i am a drug user mdmdma and vote no only a moroen on drugs drink or not would vote yes

man they trying to get rid of them off the map

There are no humans indigenous to Australia. Everyone's ancestor, whether Aboriginal or European, or Asian, came to Australia from somewhere else.

I hate my country's past when it comes to these poor people!😐✌❤🇬🇧

People who vote no are not against reconciliation, but how this implementation was presented to the Australian public and its timing. We would rather the government tackle the cost of living crisis over this: this is a low priority for a lot of Australia.

It's the same in US and Australia, European rope them of their land.

Maybe people in Australia have seen whats happened to white south Africans

I didn't vote because i had no fucken idea what i was agreeing to

Not very balanced is it? What can one expect from a hard left channel

What a propaganda hit piece.

The first bias yes video with comments "on"... Note most comments are referring to voting NO...

Sounds pretty racist to vote yes on this .

That activist is going to have to work harder, this was their chance and she like all those other aborginal people who wanted to concentrate, they blew it for themselves.

I voted no :)

NO to division.

It is hard if not impossible to state it in short words better than Senator Price : "Australia should be united together as one, not divided by race. The proposed new ‘Voice’ in parliament is divisive and dangerous - it will only push Australian apart. Take action to keep Australians united!" We should never have any 'treaties' based on racial, ethnic and historical divisions. These differences can be rather mutually enriching and uniting Australians, if they are cultural differences of people with absolutely equal social and political rights. Otherwise, these differences could mutate into means of destructive divisions! Throughout human history, the face of the entire world has always been changing: its ethnic groups, countries, borders, etc. Many of these changes have been unjust as they resulted from conflicts, violence, local and world wars, and crimes against humanity. We need to constantly learn from our history that not to create new injustices. One of such lessons suggests that we must not attempt to heal committed injustices by new injustices. Our history shows that any attempt to reverse established historical reality turns into injustice. In case of our country Australia, it is not possible to heal historical wounds of Indigenous people by giving them a special constitutional status and rights, or even 'sovereignty'. More than 26 millions Australians should not be discriminated compared to less than a million Indigenous people. We need to find just and really democratic ways of efficiently addressing their issues. Injustice cannot be healed by injustice! With full respect to Indigenous people and regrets of what happened to them in the colonial past, we all still have to realize that the historical reality is that Australian nation consists now of people from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The Indigenous people group is not the biggest one and not the one, which made the biggest contribution into creating of modern Australia. Anyway, regardless of that, under no circumstances it is a good idea to try to reverse history, as it would mean racism and discrimination towards majority of people in Australia, which are not responsible at all for our colonial past. We need to strongly condemn colonial crimes and atrocities but accept historical reality and have really democratic society, where we all should be absolutely equal in our rights. No one, including Indigenous people, should have any special privileges regardless of their background and history. It is why I am against Voice and any specific ethnic and/or racial 'treaties' but strongly for really democratic Australian republic where every person would be absolutely equal in their rights.

Aussie needs a Dr.Ambedkar like in India to protect Indigenous people!

Is Ben Abbatangelo a secessionist? Does he want an aboriginal nation/nations within Australia? Sounds like a fast-track to apartheid.

No.

They keep talking about a treaty but we still have men attacking their partners with axes how does that work?

natives should never be abused but never be in power

They called no voters mean spirited .. I Voted NO😅

Every piece of technology in this video was a result of colonialism. Put the alcohol down. Pick the PS5 up. Enjoy the fact you get to go to a hospital 🏥 when you are pregnant not just ‘hope for the best’ in the forest somewhere. I’d happily lose some finger painting and didjeridoos for that.

Australia doesn't let natives vote?

We need more referendums ! Especially on imigration and social spending.

To @rmedsy .. you hit the Nail on the head

.. used to love You're the Voice .. Not anymore!

Wow.Great native.God speed to help everyone and protect them always.

Stop using socialist term "First Nation". There are Aboriginal and Torrese Straight Islander people. All peoples of Australia will band together and say NO to "You will own nothing and be happy". We will stand up and fight for our countries democratic freedom and independence.

Voting Yes would set in motion a very divisive policy direction

Where is america, i think they are the guardian of democrazy

No. No No.. We must not be divided on racial grounds

Is race genetic, or is it more of a social construct? I just always felt ethnic identity was more accurate

It was the English who stole their land, many of us anglo aussies didnt come by choice either, current day Aussies shouldn't be held responsible for Britian's colonisers,No from me to a Voice to Parliament.