The response of the Left to the Voice referendums failure has been covered today at the Alor.org blog, but for the record, here is material from the Left Guardian.com, that has everything, just to show that we are not making this stuff up! Voting against the Voice is an act of denial of the guilt of the past that whites must carry. For example: “It was vitriolic, mean-spirited, full of misinformation, driven by racism, petty grievances and conspiracy theories based on fear and ignorance. The referendum became by proxy a vote on Indigenous peoples’ right to exist in our own land – and our fellow Australians voted to reject us.”

No, the vote was about a specific constitutional proposal, not whether Australians believed that indigenous people had a right to exist. How exactly today has anything changed to threaten such a right? I imagine that those who have the liberty to have jobs hitting computer keyboards and getting paid for it, still are? So, where is the existential threat?

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2023/oct/14/rejecting-the-voice-shows-australia-is-still-in-denial-its-history-of-forgetting-a-festering-wrong

“Rejecting the voice shows Australia is still in denial, its history of forgetting a festering wrong

Lorena Allam

Australia has overwhelmingly voted not to recognise Indigenous people in the constitution, and the nation has changed forever.

Plenty will be said in the coming days about the campaign and how it all went down, much of it by non-Indigenous people who already have power, influence and access to the media to prosecute their arguments. In that way, the country will be much the same as it was last week: a place where the voices of First Nations people are drowned out, talked over and misrepresented in a national conversation that is forever about us, without us.

It will take us months and years to grasp the full impact. But it is already blindingly clear that the result has been deeply hurtful for First Nations people, regardless of how we voted.

We entered this campaign with apprehension; it felt risky to put faith in the Australian people, most of whom have never met an Aboriginal person and who mostly remain unaware of our history and cultures. My adult child, standing in a long line to vote on Saturday, was overwhelmed with sadness. “Why are all these people deciding whether we belong or not?” they asked. Other friends and family were taking it in turns to accompany elders to and from voting booths, making sure they were not left alone in the queue. Mob have been checking in on each other in texts, phone calls, group chats, Facebook: the love and solidarity on such a challenging day has been uplifting.

When bipartisanship, which had long been a feature of the push for Indigenous constitutional recognition, died in November last year even before the question was settled, the debate went downhill fast. It was neither respectful nor informed. It was vitriolic, mean-spirited, full of misinformation, driven by racism, petty grievances and conspiracy theories based on fear and ignorance. The referendum became by proxy a vote on Indigenous peoples’ right to exist in our own land – and our fellow Australians voted to reject us.

Imagine – just try – how that feels today.

This is the result yes campaigners did not want to imagine as they frantically criss-crossed the country in the final weeks, trying to stave off the inevitable, running on hope and conviction.”