@Treefern; the most significant development in the referendum process was Peter Dutton's betrayal of the naïve trust that Anthony Albanese placed in him, shredding bipartisanship.
History informs us that from that moment onwards the referendum proposal would be rejected. Add in the ocean of disinformation, misinformation and misrepresentation, slurs, smear and innuendo expertly documented by some of Australia's best journos and the result was predictable.
We're now even seeing this in a different theatre of operation with Dutton shredding the pre-existing bipartisan approach to national security, even stooping to casting slurs on Penny Wong and causing outrage by brazenly warmongering against the Palestinian People.
IMO Dutton is looking increasingly like Mark Latham, albeit with even less charisma.