The Failure of the Voice Referendum and the Future of Australian Democracy

Presents analysis and reflections on the 2023 Voice referendum loss to inform future referendums, First Nations reforms and Australian democracy

This book provides the first sustained scholarly and practical analysis of the 2023 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice referendum loss, with a view to informing the future attempts at First Nations structural reform and the practice of Australian democracy.

Australia, and Australians, stood at a crossroads in October 2023. Before them lay a new and more accommodating way to practice democracy, a future in which First Nations people were given a representative voice in political decisions in this country. After months of a referendum campaign, struggling over foundational ideals and questions of national identity, misinformation, disinformation and racism, the proposal was overwhelmingly rejected in every Australian state and nationally. The referendum campaign was Australia’s first since the failed attempt at a republic in 1999. The political and media environment in which the referendum campaign would unfold was fundamentally changed. These changes included the growth of social media, growing distrust of major political parties, and the rise of fake news and populist politics.
This book brings together a diverse set of perspectives to explore the many and complex political, social and historical factors that influenced the conduct of the campaign and led to the loss. It includes contributions from lawyers, political scientists, historians, human rights experts, health policy experts, land rights campaigners and Indigenous affairs policy experts. The contributors in this book include First Nations and non-Indigenous authors, often writing collaboratively. The majority of the views offered, based in expertise and experience, are those of First Nations. Their writings place the referendum loss in the context of political failure and attempts at structural reform, and Australia’s terrible record at amending the Constitution through referendums. The book traces the legal and political development of the draft constitutional provision, and the influence of legal risk on the campaign. A major focus of the book is the impact of misinformation and disinformation, which was rife during the campaign, and media reporting of it. The role that civil society and corporate Australia played in the campaign is considered. The Voice campaign will be placed in the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander politics and previous attempts at representation. The book will also place the call for Voice in the context of its ongoing relevance and imperative in Aboriginal...read more...