No wonder Anthony Albanese doesn’t want to give any details of his planned Constitutional changes. Because, the more Australians learn about it, the less they like what they see. The more Albanese is forced to let on, the harder voters reject it.
That’s the inescapable conclusion from the latest SEC-Newgate polling.
The referendum to enshrine a constitutional Indigenous voice to parliament has suffered a fall in voter support, with new polling revealing a 6 per cent slide since last year’s federal election.
Keep in mind that, to pass a referendum in Australia requires a “double majority”: that is, a majority of voters nation-wide, plus majorities in a majority of states. If a majority of voters in each of just three states vote “No”, the referendum is dead.
The “Voice” referendum is looking decidedly unwell.
National support for the voice has slipped from 59 per cent in May to 53 per cent, fuelled by soft support in the key states of Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia.
At the same time, the No vote has risen by the same amount, in less than a year. This, despite the government relentlessly pushing the Yes case and strangling the No case, in direct contravention of electoral law, while steadfastly refusing to provide detail of what Australians are actually voting for.
As prominent Aboriginal figure Warren Nyunggai Mundine puts it, “The more [people] learn about the so called voice to Parliament the more polling drops”.
An SEC-Newgate Research poll of almost 1500 voters conducted from February 1-6 found that while opposition to the voice remains low, it has risen from 16 to 22 per cent in nine months.
SEC-Newgate Research partner David Stolper said support has “slipped below 50 per cent approval in Western Australia and South Australia (noting smaller survey sample sizes in these states)”. “These results will concern the federal government, considering four of the six states have to be carried for the referendum to succeed,” Mr Stolper said.
The majority of Labor (65 per cent) and Greens (77 per cent) voters support the referendum compared with 32 per cent support among Coalition voters. Forty-three per cent of Coalition supporters opposed the voice.
The left parties’ only response to the falling support has been to accuse their opponents of “ignorance” and “racism”. Because yelling insults at people is always the best way to win them over.
Especially when it’s a blatant lie.
Following violent scenes in Alice Springs, the overall prominence of Indigenous issues among national priorities has risen since November with 68 per cent of voters strongly supporting moves by the federal and Northern Territory governments to reintroduce alcohol restrictions.
The Australian
The plain fact is not that Australians don’t wish for Aboriginal Australians to succeed — they just don’t believe that the “Voice” is going to make a jot of difference to a deplorable situation. One largely the result of Labor’s Aboriginal Affairs policies to date.
On any given night, more than 200 children, some as young as five, roam the streets of Alice Springs looking for trouble – and almost always find it.
Many of those kids are drinking alcohol, sometimes in the form of hand sanitiser diluted in soft drinks, or consuming deodorant, petrol or glue.
This was all depressingly predicted by Aboriginal people on the ground, when the new Labor government ditched Howard-era laws.
Marion Scrymgour, federal MP in the seat of Lingiari, says she has watched “lawlessness and disrespect” in the town grow exponentially since the Stronger Futures laws lapsed in July last year, making alcohol legal in many Aboriginal town camps for the first time in 15 years.
The former NT deputy chief minister says the removal of the grog ban has led to a level of violence she had never encountered.
The Australian
Labor were warned, loudly and clearly, what was going to happen. Yet they did it anyway.
Now all they’re offering in return is dangerous, racist meddling with the Constitution.
And, like Labour in NZ, who kept He Puapua secret as long as they could, and lied through their teeth about Three Waters, Labor in Australia is desperately trying to keep their true agenda secret.
No wonder voters are walking away.
