It was said by some, in the later stages of Australia’s (thankfully now over) referendum campaign for an ill-defined Aboriginal “voice to parliament”, that this was our “Brexit moment”. Well, with the almighty defenestration of Jacindarella’s Labour Party in New Zealand, it has been a night for the ages for Club Sensible in the Antipodes. Brexit squared, down under. The outsider class had its big opportunity, and it took it. Just as the Brits did (just) on 23 June 2016.
As an added bonus, it is said that the Australian cricketers may need counselling post the referendum.
At the close of counting, NZ National, under former Air New Zealand Chief Executive Christopher Luxon was poised to form (the inevitable Kiwi) coalition government, and NZ Labour was routed, very nearly losing in Jacinda Ardern’s old seat. They lost seats they had never lost before.
Back across the Ditch, the no campaign won a stunning victory, taking all States as well. The margin at the time of writing stands about over 60 per cent for the no vote. The desire expressed (by no campaign leader Gary Johns) early on in the campaign for not just a no victory but a massive one, was granted in spades. In some electorates in the Aussie bush, the no vote as well into the 80 per cents. In recent polling, even 40 per cent of Labor voters were going to vote no. This is simply stunning.
It was despite the massive visibility of the yes case, buoyed by endless corporate dollars and a conga line of celebrities. Not to mention all of the top-down sneering at the no voters throughout the long months that preceded the referendum. And the graffitiing of no posters. And the cheating. The denial of equal funding to the no case. The Electoral Commission’s quirky interpretation of what counts as a formal vote. (Ticks for yes were okay, crosses for no were not). The yes people were simply everywhere. No, it was a flogging, against the odds.
Using Johnny Farnham’s 1980s hit song, “The Voice”, clearly didn’t help. It more than likely hindered.
In Australia, the further you went from the inner cities, the bigger the no majorities became. In fact, just about the only seats to vote yes were those held by rich, greenie women. And, of course, Canberra. In New Zealand, the rout was more geographically even. In both cases, it was a monumental flipping of the bird by the deplorables at the elites. NZ Labour’s (early Covid) 2020 vote was, literally, halved. As shellackings go, it was one for the ages. A greater rejection of Ardernism, with all of its woke, globalist agendas rammed down Kiwi throats, especially since she gained an outright majority at the last election, is hard to imagine.
Infamously, Jacinda Ardern’s totalitarian Covid response was at the lunatic end of the scale. Equally infamously, she stated that the only source of truth in relation to the virus for New Zealanders was to be found in the Government.
New Zealand prime minister sounds like Ministry of Truth leader - Rebel News
The Kiwi economy’s subsequent, post-Covid tanking has exceeded those of many other, fiscally incontinent Covid regimes. The hangover has been especially painful there, with spiralling debt and deficit. As well, there is (finally) push back against Ardern’s Maorification of life, her embedding of virtual apartheid. Even (perhaps especially) the prominent part-Maori politician/kingmaker Winston Peters has railed against the divisiveness of Labour’s Maori-centric policies. Winston even had views on the Australian referendum and the lessons for it from his own country. Views not terribly conducive to the yes campaign.
Now ensconced in Harvard University, Ardern can only look on with horror and despair. Or perhaps she doesn’t care, now that her feet are firmly planted on the global stage. At a very safe distance from her former adoring Kiwi voters. Mind you, Kiwis turned on Ardern some time back, hence her scurrying off to a new career where adoration of her was far more likely to continue.
There is no doubt that the Kiwis’ outgoing Prime Minister (Chris “Chippy” Hipkins) will head off into the sunset. The Australian conservative commentator (on Sky News), Andrew Bolt, has urged our own failed leader, Anthony Albanese, to do a David Cameron and fall on his own equivalent of the post-Brexit sword. This is unlikely, despite the phrase “growing calls” appearing in the media. The voice debate managed to remove all of Albanese’s other, manifest failings from the front pages, for a time. No doubt, he will now be exposed to much greater scrutiny on broader policy disasters. The absence of a proper Covid inquiry, the housing debacle, the costs of rampant immigration, the cost-of-living crisis, the scandal of Aboriginal funding mis-management, the limp responses to Arab terrorism, and the rest. It is a long list. There is talk of looking for another Labor leader. All in his first term of office.
The elites, though, never give up on their narratives. Here is Reuters, which controls much of the way the world sees Australian events.
Australia rejects Indigenous referendum in setback for reconciliation.
This is, well, just a lie. A common or garden Reuters lie. It was the referendum itself, not the outcome, that was the setback for reconciliation. The so-called absence of reconciliation – whatever that is taken to mean by those who spout it – is a myth. At least it as until Aboriginal industry elites manufactured the view that Aborigines do not already have a “voice”. They have multiple voices. Multiple megaphones, indeed. At the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In the universities. In the non-government organisations. In the corporate media. Not to mention the Indigenous Members of Parliament, whose numbers are comfortably out of proportion to the size of the Aboriginal population.
Now, all the yes people can do is whinge and blame. The divisiveness of the Uluru Statement radicals is there for all to see. If reconciliation is now stalling, it is quite clear who is to blame for this.
In the wake of the referendum, there have been not a few comments, as well, about the corporate elites’ sell out of their shareholders and employees through there unashamed political interventions. As the (Australian) Nationals’ Leader David Littleproud pointed out.
… David Littleproud has warned corporate Australia to stay out of political debates after many businesses and organisations supported the Yes campaign ahead of the referendum.
Qantas, Telstra and Rio Tinto are among the many companies who backed the Yes campaign's push for the Voice to Parliament proposal.
The Nationals leader stressed Australians don’t like being told what to do by “elite” CEOs.
“They don’t determine the moral compass of this country, they should stay out of it, they should stick to their knitting,” he said. “I actually think it was a big mistake by the Yes campaign to bring them on.”
Australians don’t like to be told what to do. Nor do Kiwis, as it turns out. BHP donated $2m to the yes campaign. Qantas was all over it. As The Australian’s Robert Gottliebsen notes, the loud, persistent and generous support for the yes case by large (often multinational) companies was occurring at a time of falling global public esteem for corporations. Not a happy coincidence for the yes warriors.
Source: The Australian, 15 October, paywalled.
I mentioned above that the nation’s capital massive support for the yes case in the referendum. There are three seats in the Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Bean and Fenner. The yes votes in these seats were, respectively, 70 per cent, 56 per cent and 57 per cent. This is, of course, not unlike London and Washington DC, capital cities both full of leftists and “anywheres”, as opposed to “somewheres”, in David Goodhart’s schema.
These numbers say something deeply disturbing about Australia’s governance. Most of Canberra’s residents are public servants or those who work in some other way for the State. It is a town full of policy-makers. Comfortable policy-makers of the Covid laptop class. Progressives mostly. (The ACT Government recently legalised drug taking). These are the people who run Australia’s Government. Who come up with globalist schemes like offshoring pandemic management, covering the country with wind farms and solar panels, doing away with cars, de-industrialising, misinformation legislation and digital ID. Schemes never asked for by voters beyond Canberra’s borders. Those who reside in Canberra remain utterly, indeed, blissfully, untouched by the tedious goings on elsewhere.
And they have absolutely nothing in common with ordinary Australians. As the geography of the referendum outcome amply demonstrates. So it was, also, in New Zealand. That nation’s most elite Government ever was not only shown the door, but was exiled from the property as well.
It was an emphatic dual victory for the outsider class, and if the losing politicians are wise, they will find a quiet place to sit and reflect at length upon their folly. And attempt governing in the interests of those who pay their salaries rather than in the interests of those who line their own and the politicians’ pockets at our expense.
This lesson, by the way, should not be lost on Christopher Luxon (or Peter Dutton, for that matter). Luxon is far more John Key (a moderate) than Bill English (a conservative). (Key and English are Luxon’s predecessor National PMs). The new PM is a canny businessman, no doubt, and articulate. But he has ridden to office on hatred of Labour rather than on his own merits. He will need to earn the respect and affection of Kiwis, by governing as if he truly esteems the outsider class and their values. Values that were amply demonstrated just this weekend on both sides of the Tasman Sea.
As one Aussie commentator noted, the ANZACs are back!
Paul Collits
15 October 2023
totally. Thanks for contribution as always.
Great summary of this weekend and I hope Luxton and Dutton take note of the numbers who do not want progressive (Communist) change.
If they make the following changes they will stay in power longer than Menzies.
1. Pull out of the UN before they put their military on our streets to take over completely.
2. Pull out of the WHO before they use their pandemic treaty totalitarian powers.
3. Cancel the net zero and Paris agreements signed by previous governments and educate the people that CO2 is necessary for life, its level is too low and we have already reached net zero if you count the CO2 absorbed by the Great barrier reef.
4. Reverse all the Woke agenda laws and bring back support for Christianity and morality.
5. Unite the people by treating us all with the same privileges, rules and rights.
6. Start telling the truth, allow a royal commission into the virus response and stop hiding the crimes of governments, etc. during the Plandemic and in the Wood royal commission report.