Paul Bongiorno, political writer for The NewDaily, reflects on the political dynamics being played out in Australia in the lead up to the referendum on a Constitutionally enshrined First Nations’ Voice to Parliament.
Though the campaign for a referendum recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the First Nations people of this continent formally begins only on Wednesday, the debate has already revealed much about the state of politics in the nation.
The decision by the leaders of the opposition Coalition parties to turn the question into a partisan political contest has taken its toll on support for recognition of First Nations people in the founding document of the Commonwealth of Australia.
The opportunity to right an historical wrong, to cease being the last of former colonial countries to recognise prior occupation and acknowledge a cruel dispossession has been placed in jeopardy by Peter Dutton and David Littleproud.