We were asked the wrong referendum question

and it was that which brought about failure. It was not "racism" which caused people to reject the "Voice to Parliament" proposal.

The electorate I live in came very close to saying "yes". It would have overwhelmingly said "yes" to acknowledging indigenous people in the Constitution. 

How do I know that? I don't of course but the conversations right around me indicated very strong support for recognition. There seems to have been very strong support for recognition, for acknowledging there were people here before white settlement. It would not have been hard to get that over the high hurdle of a majority of people in a majority of the states, the hurdle needed for constitutional change. 

There will be more questions asked now about the way we need to go in order to change the Constitution in this country. Did the men (and they were all men) who wrote our Constitution get it wrong or did they get it right when they put that requirement before change in? I think they got it right. It is very difficult to change our Constitution and I believe it should be. It is a document which has served us well for one hundred and twenty-two years. We may well want to rewrite it in the future but, until then, we need to abide by what it says. Make a good argument for change as we did in 1967 and people will support it.

There was no good argument for change here. We were looking at the wrong idea. We were not looking at recognition. We should have been looking at recognition. Recognition alone would have offered so much. 

It was a small but powerful activist group who wanted a big change. They wanted more than we were prepared to give them. They were "inner city activists" who claimed to be speaking on behalf of all indigenous people. Clearly they were not. They wanted all this to lead to "truth telling", "reparations", "a treaty" and more. Indigenous  people I know are much more concerned with housing, health, education and employment and the cost of living - the same concerns as all of us.

Perhaps this is a discussion we needed to have. Perhaps now the vote is over we will be able to get on with the business of "closing the gap" but it is going to take work.  In making their demands for their grievances to be met these activists have caused so much harm. I hope it is not irreparable harm.