Tag: Voice to Parliament

A failure of process, a shift in the nation’s temper, a lack of reliable information and the city-regions divide were among factors contributing to the defeat of the Voice to Parliament referendum, leading Yes proponents said at the launch of two new books at the Australian Catholic University on 2 July.

Two new books from Connor Court Publishing give long-overdue postmortems of last year’s Voice to Parliament referendum. Damien Freeman and Fr Frank Brennan SJ have given us some of the most extensive appraisals of its defeat to date, avoiding simple blame-laying and taking a broader view of why things went wrong.

I turn 30 later this year. I am told that’s a big deal, but I am not sure why—most of the country has already done it.11

Following the Voice to Parliament referendum, we find ourselves in a moment of solemn reflection. We contemplate the deep historical significance of the path our nation has chosen, a path too familiar to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Following the defeat of the Voice to Parliament at the 14 October referendum, Australians must “avoid the temptations of both triumphalism and defeatism” and recommit to coming together in genuine charity, Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP has said.

My sincere hope is that the defeat of this particular proposal ... is not understood as a rejection of the ongoing process of reconciliation," Archbishop Fisher said

Although the official voice campaign has only been underway for eight weeks, it has in some respects been running since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that he would implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full.

On the question of Aboriginal people in 1846, Archbishop Polding wrote that "his opinion may be very different from that entertained by the greater part of the community." His words and those of John Paul II offer Catholics much guidance in the days ahead to October 14.

Whether or not the Voice to Parliament referendum passes on 14 October, the need is urgent to end entrenched disadvantage among Australia’s Indigenous people, agreed leading academics in the annual Warrane Lecture.

A failure of the Voice referendum would resign Aboriginal people to “heartbreak to the point of loss of faith, frustration to the point of despair, and rejection to the point of alienation,” Voice architect Noel Pearson told Catholics on 29 September.

Footsore, covered with flies and pressing on despite 40-plus degree temperatures, Pat Farmer is close to the end of an extraordinary run around Australia.

Julie Macken: My vote for Yes comes from the love I have been shown by family, my own ancestors and this beautiful old country