Australia’s decision to vote against enshrining an Indigenous Voice to parliament in the Constitution made headlines around the world, as Europe correspondent Rob Harris reports.
In the UK, The BBC reported Australia had overwhelmingly rejected a plan to give greater rights to Indigenous people in an “often acrid campaign”, and The Times said it was a “a huge blow” for those who viewed the Voice as a unique opportunity to close the yawning gap that remains between Australia’s indigenous people and the rest of the population.
In France, Le Monde said Indigenous Australians had expressed anger and anguish that the white majority had rejected calls for “a reckoning with the country’s bloody colonial past” while Germany’s state-owned international broadcaster Deutsche Welle described the result as a “major setback to the country’s efforts for reconciliation with its First Peoples”.
Al Jazeera, the Qatari-owned 24-hour English-language news channel, said the result have implications for misinformation campaign in Australia.
In the Financial Times, it made headline news and said the rejection of the Voice "represents a setback in the country’s attempts to deal with its past and present treatment of its native people, who make up 3 per cent of the population."
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