Key architect of the Indigenous Voice To Parliament reveals the surprising reason she thinks many Aussies voted NO
One of the key figures behind Indigenous Voices in Parliament blamed “Australians’ hatred of politicians” for the measure’s failure.
UNSW law professor Megan Davies, who said she spent 12 years working on the proposal, argues putting politicians “too much in the spotlight” was a fatal mistake for the Yes campaign.
While she said racism played a role, the deciding factor was the “tornado-like force” of Australia’s hatred of politicians that the Yes campaign simply could not overcome.
Professor Davis said the disappointment of referendum night, when it became clear the Vote had been rejected by more than 60 per cent of voters because it failed to win a majority in any state, still stung.
UNSW law professor Megan Davies said Indigenous Voices in Parliament was something she had been working on for 12 years.
“It was cruel. It was like a funeral. It was just terrible. It was all terrible,” she told reporters. Australian Financial Review.
After the bitter aftermath, Professor Davis said she couldn’t even call her mother for two days.
She also admitted that she wanted to hide and didn’t even want to go out to receive the Energy of the Year award at the 2023 Marie Claire Woman of the Year Awards on November 21.
“I can assure you that I was ‘under the Duna’ right up until I had to leave the house,” Professor Davis said, although leaving the house was “really good for me.”
What continues to give her hope is the high demand for T-shirts endorsing the Voice Foundation’s document, the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which she helped write after the 2017 National Constitutional Convention of Indigenous Peoples.
“People act like we haven’t lost, that we’re still on our way,” she said.
“They expect us to keep going.”
Professor Davis said the crushing disappointment on referendum night, when it became clear the Voice had been soundly rejected, felt like a “funeral”.
“Australians send me all these really cute letters and cards at my office with little knitted hearts and pictures and drawings from the next day, saying, ‘I don’t know what to say.’
Professor Davis did find some hope, as 39.4 percent of voters supported the measure.
“We need to start working with these six million. What does it look like? What do we want?,” she told the Australian Financial Review in her first extensive interview since the October 14 referendum defeat.
“What we have now is movement. But before the referendum we didn’t have this.”
Uluru (Statement from the Heart) has always been intended for the masses.
“These groups are not led or managed by anyone. These are ordinary Australians in their communities who are as devastated as we are and want change.”
Professor Davis also said she shared, at least in part, Australia’s mistrust of politicians.
“At the ballot box, we elect representatives who don’t necessarily represent the interests of their constituents… they’re almost subservient to interests that are not the interests that elected them,” she said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured centre) has taken the political lead in promoting the Voice message.
She argues that Australians’ lack of faith in their politicians and institutions is partly masked by compulsory voting, which creates a favorable climate for “misinformation”.
Labor Party leaders and MPs, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, campaigned strongly for the Voice, with the Teal and Greens also supporting it.
The Coalition opposed this, with Jacinta Nampijinpa Price being a leading supporter of the No campaign, but there were some notable dissenters such as former Shadow Indigenous Affairs spokesman Julian Leeser.
Professor Davis accused the Coalition of opportunism.
“The Coalition’s position was about election success, not good governance or recognition,” she said.
She also blamed “political ideology”, saying that Golos, which was a coalition policy, had become an “ideological football”.
She remains committed to structural changes in government to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians because anything else is “tinkering around the edges and ‘hoping you make a difference’.”
The professor has co-authored a book with UNSW colleague Gabrielle Appleby on the legal aspects of the referendum.
She is also collaborating with Sana Nakata of Townsville James Cook University’s Center for Indigenous Education and Research on a collection of essays.