Australia has had its Brexit moment. Woke PM Anthony Albanese asked Aussies to sign a blank cheque and got a big fat zero in return, writes OLLIE GILLMAN

Australia has had its Brexit moment, decisively rejecting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s plans to enshrine a ‘Vote’ for Aboriginal people in its constitution.

In the wake of his election victory last year, the left-leaning Labor prime minister believed the rest of the nation shared his view – and that of his inner-city metropolitan Sydney electorate – that an Aboriginal body should be consulted on any future laws affecting indigenous touching people people.

The working men and women of Australia disagreed.

As simple as it is presented, it’s easy to think this is just another example of ‘racist Australia’ beating down its tired indigenous population.

But in reality Mr Albanese couldn’t tell Aussies what they voted for – and even some of the most high-profile Aboriginal figures in the country ended up voting against his vigilante agenda.

From the beginning, very little was explained.

Aussies rightly had some questions.

Who would be on the body – called The Voice?

We will tell you later.

How exactly will they be chosen?

We will let you know.

What changes will be made to the Constitution, and what powers will the Vote actually have?

This is a matter for after the referendum.

The truth is that Mr Albanian asked Aussies to sign a blank check – and they weren’t having any of it.

The referendum was all over within 90 minutes of the first polls closing. Tasmania – a must-win state – was the first to be called out for the No campaign, followed by New South Wales and, the final nail in the coffin, South Australia.

And that was before the counting had even begun in Queensland and Western Australia, which were the two conservative states likely to be no.

With energy and food prices soaring and with a property market in disarray, the last thing on the minds of regular Aussies is how much better to ignore the views of a group that makes up 3.2% of the overall population – and which already represented in Parliament. by their MPs, like everyone else.

And to have that drive thrust upon them by a leader who didn’t seem to have the backbone — or maybe understand himself — to explain what that even meant was just not going to fly.

It was Australia’s Brexit moment. Like Brexit, Aussies were unwilling to stand up to a group of largely unelected people having a say in the laws of the land.

Like Brexit, Aussies weren’t just going to go along with the metropolitan elite – just because it was the ‘right thing to do’.

And like Brexit’s Nigel Farage, the No campaign had fiery politicians such as Aboriginal senators Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Lidia Thorpe championing their cause.

The No campaign received a massive boost as the likes of Price and Thorpe backed their position – showing Aussies that voting No was not racist.

Instead of making the case for The Voice, the Yes campaign instead sought to sow division by simply pointing at the No campaign and labeling it racist – a point that Senator Thorpe himself raised has.

‘Labour just points to the ‘racist No’ campaign and says, “you don’t want to opt into that,” she explained in an interview.

“I think it’s part of the ignorance and the racism that comes out in this whole debate, that First People can’t say no because they’re automatically put in this ‘racist no’ category. That in itself is racist.’

The Yes campaign claims that more than 80 per cent of Indigenous Australians planned to vote in favor of the Vote – and this may be true.

But Mr Albanese’s failure to convince Average Joe Aussie to back him was his biggest failure and he now faces the embarrassing task of trying to move on after falling at the first hurdle of his premiership.

When the UK voted for Brexit, Prime Minister David Cameron fell on his sword and quit.

He was forced to call a referendum to end decades of infighting within his own party over the nation’s relationship with Europe – foolishly thinking that the ‘sensible’ people of Britain would support him continuing with the status quo go.

What makes Mr Albanese’s mistake even worse than that is that he probably didn’t even need to call a referendum.

The majority of Australians probably hadn’t even heard of the idea of ​​a Vote for Parliament a year ago – and with Labour’s post-election majority it could well have created a new advisory body without seeking consent from voters and without changing the constitution.

Major players on both sides agree that the referendum – and especially a No vote – will not help heal Australia’s old wounds.

Indigenous leader Marcia Langton, who backed the Vote, said a No vote would “give a mandate to do (Indigenous Australians) even further harm”.

Meanwhile, in her maiden speech in the Senate last year, Senator Price warned that a vote against the Vote risked driving a wedge between black and white Australians.

“It would be much more dignified if we were recognized and respected as individuals in our own right, defined not simply by our racial heritage, but by the content of our character,” she said.

Mr Albanese will not follow Mr Cameron in handing in his notice, but even he may have to admit that rather than boosting the cause of Indigenous Australians, his failure of leadership has set them back.