On Saturday, 60.6 per cent of Australians voted against an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in the country’s first referendum since 1999.
Warren Mundine, who was one of the most prominent No advocates, says the result was not because Australians didn’t want to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
Listen to today’s episode of The Briefing with Warren Mundine here:
He says it was a reflection of non-Indigenous Australians not wanting any more “committees or bureaucracies”, and that the Voice was “never explained how it could work and what it was going to do”.
So, what should happen next?
On today’s episode of The Briefing, Mundine discusses the results of the failed referendum, and what he believes should come next.
He suggests a performance assessment should be conducted to see where the “billions and billions of dollars” spent each year on programs is actually going and examine what the outcomes are of those programs.
“Focus on outcomes that are good, ones that are not good, and what do we need to fix them so that we actually have the outcomes that we need,” he said.
“And people need to be accountable for that. So, you know, you’re given money for education, and we want kids at school, and we want reading and writing skills and mathematics and all that type of stuff.
If people can’t deliver that, then we need to help them to fix that and then if they still don’t deliver that, then we need to find someone who.”
Mundine says whether Australians votes Yes or No, there was one thing they all had in comment: First Nations People’s issues needed to be fixed.
“People everywhere I went around Australia, whether they were Yes voters or No voters, they all said the same thing. It has to be fixed,” he said.
“And that’s the clear message to the governments and the opposition at the state and territory and federal level. How do we work together as a united country and move better into the future?”