Voice advocate launches scathing attack against ‘lazy’ Aussies who voted No in the referendum

A leading Voice activist has condemned Australians for being 'too lazy' to vote 'yes' in October's referendum, saying she was 'very, very disappointed' by the vote result.

Professor Lisa Pulver Jackson, 64, said she was still struggling to understand the rejection of Indigenous Voice in parliament, which received less than 40 percent support in the referendum.

But she claims that many No voters have since told her that they regretted opposing the proposal and that they simply had not understood what they were voting about.

'I can't make sense of it. Not at all,” she said on Tuesday during the evening panel show The Drum, which will be axed by the ABC at the end of this week after thirteen years on air.

“I have to say I'm very disappointed in the Australian people.”

The indigenous epidemiologist and deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney added: “I don't understand.

“People were just too lazy or just too uninterested or just felt like it didn't concern them, so they just check the 'No' box because that's simple.

“Don't create change if it wouldn't affect them at all. The outcome of this would not affect them at all.

“What I do know is that since then a lot of people have come up to me and said I voted no, but I wish I had voted yes now because I was able to resolve it.”

Professor Pulver Jackson said the Voice was key to updating Australia's constitution, which, she said, was written in 1901 by a “bunch of white men”.

“If you look at Australian demography today, it's a very small minority,” she said.

“So the Australian Constitution doesn't represent many people today.

“I think it's a modest question to say to the 95 percent of Australians who are not Aboriginal themselves, Torres Strait Islander people, do you recognize us?”

Professor Pulver Jackson called on Australians to help bring about the necessary change.

“Will you, the people of Australia, recognize us in the Constitution, the founding document of this country, a document drawn up at a time when your people were not yet here?” she said.

“Because we are a migrant country, 40 percent of Australians are first or second generation Australians – so they weren't here when this constitution was drafted.”

Professor Pulver Jackson said the Voice's rejection was devastating, but she still believed there was a chance for reconciliation.

“Saying no, I thought, was very disappointing,” she said. 'In the context of we are not allowed to have a voice at a table where matters are decided about us.

Professor Lisa Pulver Jackson (pictured) is still struggling to understand the rejection of Indigenous Voice in parliament, which received less than 40 percent support in the referendum

Fellow Yes campaigner Roy Ah-See told the show that indigenous people were demanding more than just 'tokenism' and wanted 'substantial change'

“And I haven't been able to process what that means in my heart yet.”

But she added: “I can't believe reconciliation is dead. There must be hope. We must invite Australians to continue working with us.

“Are we brave enough to make the journey together and create a constitution that is right for us all, that recognizes First Australians and all other Australians too?

“Not just white guys who were here in 1901.

'Let's have that discussion now. I don't know if reconciliation is the right word for the process we are going through.

“But I think there will be a lot of regrets that will arise once we are able to process the grief that many of us are experiencing.”

Fellow Yes campaigner Roy Ah-See told the show that indigenous people were demanding more than just 'tokenism' and wanted 'substantial change'.

He believed that the rejection of the Voice meant that the atonement was now dead.

“I'm convinced it's gone,” he said. 'Because we have been rejected in our own country. And what that feels like is just traumatic for our First Nations people.

'To walk around in your own country and not feel accepted, but rather rejected, that is not good.'

He praised big companies like Qantas, who came out and supported the Yes campaign, but added: “History will tell us this was the wrong decision.”