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Australia rejects proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in constitution (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/world@lemmy.world
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Australians have resoundingly rejected a proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in its constitution and establish a body to advise parliament on Indigenous issues.

Saturday’s voice to parliament referendum failed, with the defeat clear shortly after polls closed.

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[–] 53 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Leaving the moral arguments aside, there were also massive campaign failures on the Yes side. No had two clear cheerleaders with an absurdly simple catchphrase: “If you don’t know, vote No”. Meanwhile Yes didn’t have a star for the campaign and had made the amendment way too simple/general so there weren’t any included details of the practicalities. So they ended up with 100 people having to re-explain their plans every campaign stop and occasionally tripping over each other’s messages. As a result, the complicated sell from Yes played right into No‘s hands.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago* (5 children)

    So the No side's campaign was one of deliberately not educating people? To me that just says that people educated on the subject are voting Yes.

    While that may be an absurdly simple slogan, it is also absurdly stupid.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Also, the Yes slogan eventually became "if you don't know - find out" and "just Google it".

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Just Google it, the advice you always hear when the other person is shutting down any more conversation. What an unfortunate result

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    "Google it" vs "no". The point of the slogan was to highlight a) how the other side was shutting down the conversation and b) that their premise of ignorance was stupid, in a short pithy way.

    It wasn't saying "go find out", so much as "you CAN find out if you care, there is no reason to not know"

    That said, without question, the Yes campaign's official messages were pretty poor. Supporters have been far more eloquent.

    On the "just google it" topic, this short video was brilliantly well done: https://youtube.com/watch?v=SAqIypjk-5A

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  • [+] -6 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    The 'No' campaign was largely nonexistent. The 'Yes' campaign was enough reason to vote 'No'. And the 'No' voters are just as educated as 'Yes' voters. It's just that some people can't understand why other people would disagree with them.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Some are educated, some are racist - no reason they can't be both.

    It's easy to understand ignorance and racism.

    (There's a third option, and that's for the mining magnates like Clive who want less complaining about digging up sacred sites)

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