The Defeat of the Proposed Aboriginal Voice to Parliament in Australia

The voters of Australia have just rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to create a special “Voice” for Aboriginal and Torrens Strait Islander people in the national Constitution. This essay assesses the proposal from the point of view of an opponent of it, provides a legal analysis on some disputed points and attempts to provide reasons why the people decisively rejected it. The main obstacles to its success were the over-confidence of its proponents and their refusal to compromise. There were also some disturbing misuses of the concept of misinformation to hamper debate.