2023-10-23 06:39:05
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Indigenous activists who wanted Australia to create an advisory body to represent the country’s most disadvantaged ethnic minority called the rejection of the initiative in a constitutional referendum a “shameful act.”
Many Indigenous Voice advocates in Parliament remained silent for a week and flew Aboriginal flags at half-mast in Australia following the October 14 consultation, which decided against enshrining that entity in the constitution.
In an open letter to federal lawmakers dated Sunday and seen by The Associated Press on Monday, activists in favor of the project said the result was “so appalling and malicious as to be completely unbelievable.”
“The truth is that the majority of Australians have committed a disgraceful act, whether knowingly or not, and there is nothing positive to be interpreted from it,” the letter stated.
The letter was written by indigenous leaders, community members and various organizations, but was not signed.
Indigenous leader Sean Gordon said Monday he was one of many people who drafted the letter and had decided not to add his signatures.
“It was a declaration that would engage Indigenous people across the country and non-Indigenous people across the country, so signing it by individuals or organizations was not the strategy we followed,” Gordon told the Australia Broascasting Corp.
Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles, who leads the government while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in the United States, said he accepted the public verdict.
“The Australian people always give the right response, and the government certainly accepts the referendum result, so we will not go ahead with constitutional recognition,” Marles told reporters.
The authors of the letter attributed the result in part to the main opposition parties supporting the no vote.
They accused the Liberal Party and the Nationals, two conservative parties, of choosing to inflict “gratuitous political damage” on the center-left Labor Party government instead of supporting the disadvantaged indigenous people.
No referendum has given a positive result in Australia without support from the main parties.
Veteran Liberal senator Michaelia Cash said voters had rejected Albanese’s proposed Voice format.
“On referendum day, Australians did not vote ‘no’ to uniting Indigenous people, they did not vote ‘no’ to improving outcomes for our most disadvantaged. What Australians voted ‘no’ on was Mr Albanese,” Cash said.
The authors of the letter said that social networks and general media “released a tsunami of racism against our people” during the referendum campaign.
The proposal was rejected with 61% votes against.
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