There’s nothing surprising about the No campaign’s success

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The Albanese government has underestimated the force of a long lineage of racist and divisive politics.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)

If and when the historic Voice referendum meets defeat in coming months, as polls increasingly suggest, the court of history will blame not only the rank political opportunism of the opposition and the fringe right, but — as things stand — so too the Albanese government. 

It is, of course, no secret that Yes advocates (the government included) have been forced to trek an impossibly narrow path in their bid to explain and widen the proposal’s appeal. 

They’ve been at pains to point out, for instance, that the Voice embodies a simple rather than radical idea, though not something so modest in its aims it suffers the charge of symbolism. Indeed, that it nonetheless presents a historic moment of reconciliation, though not something so profound or far-reaching that it necessarily compels rather than invites change. And yet that, even so, it will make a difference, even if the possibility of such difference remains irrevocably tied to the will of Parliament, which can ignore the Voice. 

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About the Author

Maeve McGregor

Reporter

Maeve McGregor is a reporter for Crikey, with a special interest in law and government integrity issues. Prior to this, she was a lawyer.

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