A Rare Defeat for the Establishment

       2023, and another Australian referendum bites the dust! Australians are wary of changing their Constitution. They know that if they make a mistake, they will never be able to fix it, so if any significant group opposes the referendum, they vote No. And this one was especially egregious. Ignoring the bread-and-butter issues with which the people were really concerned, the Prime Minister had made it his priority to establish an Aboriginal "Voice" to act as an addition to Parliament. It could have been established simply by legislation, but for reasons on which we may speculate, he wanted it in the Constitution. As for the details - its size, the cost, the choosing of its members, and everything else which might interest the population - these were ignored. The great unwashed citizenry were not supposed to know anything as trivial as that before they affirmed their masters' plans. The result was predictable: 61% No to 39% Yes. Just 90 minutes after voting closed in the eastern states, the referendum was declared lost. But that was only half the story. 

      The fact is, this was a rare victory for us, the general public. The whole darn Establishment was against us. They outspent us five to one. All the state Governments supported the Yes campaign. So did the 13 biggest commercial enterprises, nearly all the major sporting codes, two universities, and a couple of churches, not to mention a whole swag of celebrities. How could so many agents of the Establishment get it so wrong? And why did they do it?

     Some of them no doubt genuinely believed the Voice was a good thing. However, while CEOs and board members presumably have their own private political and social views, they normally don't use their organizations to support them unless they actually affect the organization. A lot more, I suspect, were simply virtue signaling. They dwell in a left wing bubble, and genuinely believe that all these politically correct views were mainstream. Also, many of them probably wanted to cosy up to the Government. As the CEO of BHP put it, it was in the best interests of the company. It should be interesting to see how they now square it with their shareholders, members, customers, and other stakeholders. 

     Even so, it is rumoured that two donations of a million dollars each were made to the No campaign on the proviso of anonymity, because nobody of substance wanted to be seen to be a No supporter. Just the same, the Yes campaign spent five times as much as the No campaign. It was a David vs Goliath battle. However, as I mentioned before, the leftist "long march through the institutions" ends at the Constitution, because the general public (drat it!) have to have their say.

     2016. It has been frequently pointed out that this was Australia's "Brexit moment". The UK Conservatives had a problem: too many of their members wanted to leave the EU. They were bleeding members to UKIP. Also, many were cheesed off because they had passed a law that two nuts or two screws could make a bolt  two men or two women could make a marriage. So they decided to throw them a sop: they could have a referendum on leaving the EU. They then campaigned against the issue, predicting terrible results if it were successful - not realising that, even if "Project Fear" were accurate, the leavers were more concerned about getting their country back. Shock, horror! The people voted to leave. The Government was left wrong footed, and because their hearts weren't in it, they refused to negotiate wholeheartedly, and came up with a weak, pathetic Brexit. It will be a long time before any British Government holds another referendum. What's the point of letting the unenlightened masses have a say in policy if they are going to vote the wrong way?

     Of course, in the same year something similar happened in the US. A rank outsider, Donald Trump stood for election by promising the people what they wanted. The Establishment couldn't take him seriously. They assumed he was going to go down in a screaming heap. They were so sure of themselves that his rival, Hilary Clinton hadn't even composed a concession speech. The look on her face when the results came in would have made a stunned mullet appear prosaic. Not only did Trump win, but he actually kept his promises. No wonder the Establishment hates him. They boasted of how they conspired together to defeat him in the following election, and it is why they are determined to destroy him now.