Dissent blogger Alison Bevege describes her experience, and my experience as well at the polling booth last Saturday. There were a couple of us No people to man the station all day, while the Yes side had an endless supply of eager liberal Left whites to make their attempt to bury traditional Australia; I did not see any indigenous people on their team. And, as Alison details, the Yes side represented Big Business Australia, the global corporate elites, and every other group, such as the so-called intellectuals, and New Class, who like vultures, were circling, waiting their time.
And, despite it all, the elites lost! The reasons are detailed in other posts at the blog today, but what I heard from the No voters whom I spoke with, there was no details about what they were voting for; the voters were deliberately kept in the dark, like the proverbial mushrooms. The prime minster was asking people to trust him with a blank cheque giving the Labor Party the power to make, who knows what laws. People did not buy it, having been hood winked over the Covid vax, and good for us! This I my opinion alone, but I would not buy a used car from the prime minister, let alone a used ideology.
https://lettersfromaustralia.substack.com/p/it-was-conan-the-barbarian-as-australians
“Deep in Sydney’s posh enclave of Double Bay the battle of Sherbrooke Hall raged.
On Saturday, one stood against many.
Bridget alone stood for the No case against a sea of at least 8 Yes-men.
“We are one and free,” she said, holding out pamphlets, ignored by voters, out-flanked on all sides by the patronising and the privileged.
For hours in the hot sun she fought on.
The Sherbrooke Hall vote came down to Yes: 275 and No: 255 with 8 informal. “No” missed by just 20 votes. But like the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, the battle was lost but the greater war was won.
The results are a landslide victory for ordinary working Australians including many Aboriginal people such as Jacinta Nampiginpa Price and Nyunggai Warren Mundine who said ‘No’.
It is genuinely amazing that the ‘No’ vote even won, because the Government together with large corporations spent millions promoting the ‘Yes’ campaign. Even some councils such as City of Sydney spent money on advertising ‘Yes’.
The referendum itself cost the country about $450 million, according to estimates from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) reported by the ABC.
‘Yes’ signs were everywhere, with professional printing and advertising. ‘No’ signs were few and often hand-painted.
The government and corporate class used Aboriginal people like wrapping paper to disguise the new organ of the state they wanted to create.
The Voice would not have given a greater say to Aboriginal people, it would have replaced their actual voices with a new government body populated by bureaucrats whose views the government likes.
Why couldn’t people see the actual words of the proposed change on the ballot when they voted?
Elitist enclaves voted ‘Yes’ such as the NSW seat of Wentworth. Double Bay is the electorate of wealthy Teal Allegra Spender, who attended Ascham, a private girls’ school that charges more than $42,000 per year in fees.
Warringah, north of the harbour also voted ‘Yes’ - it is the seat of Zali Steggall, another Teal.
The Teals represent the billionaire class, backed by Simon Holmes à Court, son of Australia’s first billionaire, Robert.
One Warringah ‘No’ voter told Letters From Australia that the referendum was “an attack on the citizens by the government”.
“It was an attack on the middle class, on the workers. We were at work - that’s why we weren’t at meetings. That’s why only old people were there. That’s why they called us ‘dinosaurs’,” he said.
The man was referring to journalist Ray Martin who said ‘No’ voters were “dinosaurs and d**kheads” at a speech in Marrickville, Sydney, earlier in October, Radio 2GB reported.
Let’s actually help remote indigenous people instead
Perhaps now Australia can get on with actually helping Aboriginal people in ways that matter. Sometimes that doesn’t involve money but a change in thinking.
One way would be introducing more 99-year-leases on remote Aboriginal communities to allow individual people to have the security of tenure that comes from private property ownership.
I spent a decade in Darwin and visited six remote communities in the time I was there.
I saw the unintended consequences of separate laws for Aboriginal people. Some of the worst problems come from special rules designed to “help”.
Here is just one example.
Remote Aboriginal people can’t own anything. There’s no security of tenure to use for a loan or insurance, to start a bakery or eco-tourism business or buy a home.”
The $ 450 million + spend on this disgraceful referendum could have gone a long wat to helping outback indigenous communities. Instead they were treated as the pawns of the elites. I hope that they remember this in the next federal election.