With the Voice to Parliament resoundingly defeated, many people – including legal experts – have been left wondering whether there is any hope of ever again changing Australia’s 123-year-old constitution.
The last time a referendum passed in Australia, Malcolm Fraser was prime minister, Queen Elizabeth II had just celebrated her Silver Jubilee and you could get, many people — including legal experts — have been left wondering whether there is any hope of ever again changing Australia's 123-year-old constitution.
Williams also points to issues with race and federal-state relations ."A lot of these actually go to the fundamentals of how we're governed, some of them also go to the distribution of money."A referendum generally needs the support of both sides of politics or it is doomed to fail. That was put to the people and passed with 54.4 per cent of the national vote and all six states in favour.It was the only referendum to have succeeded where an official "No" pamphlet had been distributed.
Where did the belief that all successful referendums were bipartisan come from? Opposition leader Robert Menzies. That slide was occurring both before and after the Liberal Party announced its opposition to the constitutional change. Professor Anne Twomey says the biggest risk in holding a referendum separately from an election is that the referendum becomes the focus.That was the plan for the referendum that we almost had in 2013, to allow the Commonwealth to directly fund local government.
"The biggest risk in holding it separately from an election is that the whole focus is on the referendum, and that means that the media, for example, always takes a view it has to represent both sides, both the Yes and the No … there are risks on either approach."If we want to break a cycle of referendum defeats that's lasted nearly half a century, Williams says we need to get into the habit of talking about our constitution more.
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