Australia ‘Voice’ Vote: Identity Politics Loses Big

Sydney — Chalk up a big defeat for identity politics. On Saturday, Australians defeated a ballot initiative that would have changed the constitution to establish an indigenous advisory body to the federal parliament.

In a referendum, the nation rejected the change pushed by the center-left Labor government by a 20-point margin. As a result, a constitutional “Indigenous Voice to Parliament” — an unelected and unaccountable group of Aboriginal Australians that would have advised the nation’s lawmakers on any matter of its choosing — was consigned to history before it was even instituted.

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Tom Switzer

Tom Switzer is the executive director of the Centre for Independent Studies.

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Sydney — Chalk up a big defeat for identity politics. On Saturday, Australians defeated a ballot initiative that would have changed the constitution to establish an indigenous advisory body to the federal parliament.

In a referendum, the nation rejected the change pushed by the center-left Labor government by a 20-point margin. As a result, a constitutional “Indigenous Voice to Parliament” — an unelected and unaccountable group of Aboriginal Australians that would have advised the nation’s lawmakers on any matter of its choosing — was consigned to history before it was even instituted.