While I'm a strong supporter of the Voice, I fear it's going to be defeated. I've spoken to a number of people around me and there's genuine confusion around whether it's something indigenous Australians want. While the statistics show 80-90% support amongst indigenous Australians for the Voice, when the Coalition trots out Price and Mundine, the public sees a sizable dissenting indigenous faction. Those I've spoken to are unsure if they should vote yes solely on the basis that they aren't sure if indigenous Australians want it, and that's from my more progressive mates.
Labor has and is botching this campaign in a major way. Their near silence and passive approach to this campaign is failing and it's shifting normally supportive people into undecideds, let along flipping the undecided voters.
Either Labor and the Greens lift their game fast or this referendum is dead. Polling is suggesting that support has already dipped below 50%.
It's such a difficult task to argue for change when people are predisposed to supporting the status quo, particularly when your opponents can just spread as many lies as they want without sanction or even the need to publicly acknowledge their wrongdoings. It's a very different situation to, say, the same-sex marriage plebiscite where there was a much higher chance that a voter actually knew something about the issue and the people whose rights they were voting to support or suppress. I'd guess that even the average Yes voter would be woefully uneducated on the history of Australia and not really understand what they were voting for or why it was important.
While I'm a strong supporter of the Voice, I fear it's going to be defeated. I've spoken to a number of people around me and there's genuine confusion around whether it's something indigenous Australians want. While the statistics show 80-90% support amongst indigenous Australians for the Voice, when the Coalition trots out Price and Mundine, the public sees a sizable dissenting indigenous faction. Those I've spoken to are unsure if they should vote yes solely on the basis that they aren't sure if indigenous Australians want it, and that's from my more progressive mates.
Labor has and is botching this campaign in a major way. Their near silence and passive approach to this campaign is failing and it's shifting normally supportive people into undecideds, let along flipping the undecided voters.
Either Labor and the Greens lift their game fast or this referendum is dead. Polling is suggesting that support has already dipped below 50%.
It's such a difficult task to argue for change when people are predisposed to supporting the status quo, particularly when your opponents can just spread as many lies as they want without sanction or even the need to publicly acknowledge their wrongdoings. It's a very different situation to, say, the same-sex marriage plebiscite where there was a much higher chance that a voter actually knew something about the issue and the people whose rights they were voting to support or suppress. I'd guess that even the average Yes voter would be woefully uneducated on the history of Australia and not really understand what they were voting for or why it was important.