Commentary
Earlier this week, the Australian Senate passed legislation enabling the Albanese government’s promised Voice to Parliament referendum. In the next six months, Australians will make a special pilgrimage to the ballot box, one they have not made since 1999.
While 52 senators voted for the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023, 19 senators, just over one-quarter of the chamber, opposed it.
There are, invariably, some Liberal (Australia’s centre-right party) senators who support the Voice, and I have previously argued that they are seriously misguided in doing so.
What surprises me is that several Liberal senators who do not support the Voice voted to enable the referendum—to have the conversation, we might say….