So much of modern politics is not a battle between two extremes of the political spectrum, but a battle between those who live and breathe politics and the vast majority of people who are largely apathetic. I bring this up because something happened in Australia and at least one royal reporter thinks it’s a good sign for Australia’s monarchy. Meaning, King Charles and his merry band of colonialists. This was Richard Palmer’s tweet:

No doubt there will be conflicting views but, watching from afar, it does look as if Australians struggle to agree on the best way to achieve constitutional change.

— Richard Palmer (@RoyalReporter) October 14, 2023

So what is this all about? Australia had a referendum vote on recognizing and enshrining Aboriginal people and their rights in the Australian constitution. The referendum failed – apparently, Australians overwhelmingly dislike change. Or at least that kind of constitutional change, and perhaps the kind of constitutional change it would take to toss out the Windsors.

Australians have resoundingly rejected a proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in the country’s 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.

To succeed, the yes campaign – advocating for the voice – needed to secure a double majority, meaning it needed both a majority of the national vote, as well as majorities in four of Australia’s six states. The defeat will be seen by Indigenous advocates as a blow to what has been a hard fought struggle to progress reconciliation and recognition in modern Australia, with First Nations people continuing to suffer discrimination, poorer health and economic outcomes.

More than 17 million Australians were enrolled for the compulsory vote, with many expats visiting embassies around the world in the weeks leading up to Saturday’s poll.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, called for Australians to show “kindness” to each other after the referendum.

“This moment of disagreement does not define us. And it will not divide us,” he said. “We are not yes voters or no voters. We are all Australians. And it is as Australians together, that we must take our country beyond this debate without forgetting why we had it in the first place.”

The vote occurred 235 years on from British settlement, 61 years after Aboriginal Australians were granted the right to vote, and 15 years since a landmark prime ministerial apology for harm caused by decades of government policies including the forced removal of children from Indigenous families.

The referendum had been a key promise that Labor party took to the federal election in 2022, when it returned to power after years of conservative rule. Support for the voice to parliament had been strong in the early months of 2023, polling showed, but subsequently began a slow and steady decline. All major polls had foreshadowed that the no campaign would succeed and the voice would be rejected. Nationwide support for the voice was hovering at about 40% in the week before the vote, with coverage of the campaign being overshadowed by the outbreak of war in the Middle East in the crucial final days.

[From The Guardian]

This sounds like the kind of thing which should have already happened long ago and it’s heartbreaking that the referendum failed. I have to admit though, Palmer might have a point? If Aussies are overwhelmingly apathetic about Aboriginal people’s rights and reluctant to change their constitution, that probably IS good news for the Windsors. It means Australians will by and large say “you know what, we don’t like the monarchy but it’s not like we care enough to actually remove them from the constitution.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.