By Keiran Stewart-Assheton, 21/07/2025

We are 21 months into a live streamed genocide which is being undertaken by an illegal, apartheid settler-colonial occupation, with the material, logistical and symbolic support of the Labor party and australian government.

This is the same government who, only a week after the al-Asqa Flood of October 7th, held a referendum on an Indigenous Voice To Parliament.

A government that arms and defends the slaughter of Palestinians was never going to offer justice to us. The referendum wasn’t a gesture of progress, it was a strategy of containment, crafted to pacify resistance while the machine of occupation grinds on.

And yet, many who place themselves on the left — who see themselves as progressives or believe they’re on the right side of history — not only voted Yes back then, but would still vote Yes if the referendum were held today.

One of the most ironic things about this scenario is that most Yes voters see themselves as allies of First Nations people. Many are also likely pro-Palestinian, or at the very least, against the genocide being undertaken by the zionist colony of israel.

We should need no reminder that the political governance of the colonial occupation called australia is the same political system and the same political parties who keep us in the conditions we are in; such as the world's highest incarceration and deaths in custody rates; the mass theft of our children at the world's highest rates; massive homelessness rates we experience on our own homeland and the mass poverty we're still subjected to; like the continued displacement of our communities for the ongoing theft of our natural resources, and the wanton destruction of our sacred sites and other cultural sites; and like the world's highest suicide and self-harm rates, some of the worst statistics for chronic illness and disease, and the largest life expectancy gap in the western world.

The Role of Settler-Apathy

There exists a disconnect in the minds of settler “progressives” who would rightfully support Palestine’s liberation from genocide, apartheid and illegal occupation undertaken by a zionist project, while continuing to support a zionist influenced project within another genocidal, apartheid, illegal settler-colonial occupation project.

A disconnect that we are all too familiar with in this colony, having watched settler “progressives” and unionists rally against South Africa’s apartheid in the 90’s while turning a blind eye to the very same apartheid happening in their very own backyards — apartheid which South Africa had directly modelled its very own policies on.

This disconnect can be seen much earlier within australia’s history, with multiple other examples springing to mind, such as australia’s deployment of troops to combat fascism and genocide in Europe during WWII, a fascism and genocide undertaken by Hitler who himself was inspired by the concentration camps and extermination techniques that were mastered within the colonies of australia and Turtle Island throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, techniques which continued to be practiced here well after the defeat of the axis powers.
This disconnect has a name: settler-apathy.

There exists a degree of settler-apathy which has no doubt influenced this trend of hollow “support”. A degree to which settlers in this colonial occupation didn't even begin to recognise their place as settlers within a colonial occupation until they were shown the horrors of genocide being undertaken by the hands of settler-occupiers abroad. There are people who needed to see Europeans slaughtering Brown people elsewhere to begin to realise that they too are settlers, and that the “country” they call home is itself an illegal settler-colonial occupation on stolen lands.

Many of these same people are still reckoning with the reality of their own existence and the horrors being undertaken in their own backyard, and who are still yet to confront this same existence within themselves. These are people who would recoil with justified horror at the crimes of israel, while making excuses and justifications or just blatantly refusing to acknowledge the horror of australia’s own ongoing crimes.

The phenomenon of settler-apathy is its own issue that can, and has, been spoken about by countless Indigenous people across the globe until the point of exhaustion, and which should need no further discussion on this particular issue of the Voice To Parliament.

What has been missed (or willfully ignored)?

Mob have spoken so much about this subject and it is deeply repetitive to be speaking on it once again for the umpteenth time. Personally, I have spoken about this agenda countless times already; be it through articles, social media posts, speeches, panels, classes, media appearances, podcasts, radio, TV - you name it.

There are also many First Nations leaders grounded in grassroots Indigenous Sovereignty who have also spoken against the Voice To Parliament. Leaders like Senator Lidia Thorpe, like Aunty Gwenda Stanley, like Aboriginal Embassy founders Uncle Michael Ghillar Anderson and Professor Gary Foley and many more associated with the Embassy; warriors like Uncle Robbie Thorpe and Uncle Wayne Coco Wharton; our great legal minds such as Dr Mary Graham, Professor Irene Watson, Dr Alma Thorpe and Michael Mansell; or cultural authorities like Uncle Ned Jampijinpa Hargreaves or Aunty Sue Haseldine among many others. You can find outspoken dissent from our grassroots leaders, fighters, organisers and activists from every corner of this continent.

Much of this discourse still exists within the digital world and can still be found and read/watched/listened to/etc for those who seek it out.

Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe is surrounded by members of the Black Sovereign Movement as she speaks against the VTP during a press conference at Parliament House. Source: AAP / LUKAS COCH/AAPIMAGE

The Real Agenda: Assimilation through Recognition

So, what was the Voice To Parliament really about if it wasn’t the grand progressive reform it was heralded as? In a word: assimilation.

Since 1788 this colonial occupation has attempted not just the domination, but the complete eradication of the true and rightful heirs to this land — be it through extermination or assimilation.

That is the legacy of australia, and that is where the Voice To Parliament is ultimately situated.

It never actually had anything to do with an Indigenous Advisory Body, we have already had these bodies at all levels of government for decades, and despite the failure of the referendum campaign we have seen various jurisdictions still establish an Indigenous Voice To Parliament.

It was about Constitutional Recognition, which is why it was proposed as a referendum that would place a preamble in the australian constitution - a racist and oppressive document that the so-called nation of australia bases its very claim to existence upon.

Many supporters of the Voice To Parliament cite constitutional enshrinement as the mechanism for ensuring that the Voice To Parliament would exist in perpetuity, but these claims are fabricated and not based on historical analysis, nor is it based in the reality of the powers and functions of the constitution. We need only look at the defunct yet constitutionally enshrined Inter-State Commission to see that constitutional enshrining does not ensure the longevity or existence of such bodies, because the constitution is not a document that details what must happen but rather one that lays down boundaries for what may or may not happen — a rule book of what the government can and cannot do, not what they must and must not do.

The true history of this agenda is constitutional recognition itself, and it has its true roots and origins not in the Yulara Convention of 2017, but way back in the 1990s — not in the ALP, but in the LNP.

Excerpt from the Commonwealth Of Australia Constitution Act 1900

Mining For Consent and Consent For Mining

BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie with Professor Megan Davis, pro vice-chancellor Indigenous at UNSW, and the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Credit: Trevor Collens 2019

It was mining companies like Western Mining Corp (and its CEO at the time, Hugh Morgan) who first lobbied the Federal Labor Government under Keating, and later the LNP Government under Howard in regards to the potential threat that Aboriginal Sovereignty, and associated Land Rights would have in relation to the future of mineral extraction in australia.

Primary Industry support for Constitutional Recognition can be seen leading right up to the Referendum, with mining companies like Rio Tinto and BHP each gifting $2 million to the Yes Campaign. These donations weren’t alone, with other extractive primary industries operating on these stolen lands, such as agribusiness giant Wesfarmers and billionaire Tony Pratt (who has substantial agricultural investments) gifting $2 million and $1 million respectively. We even saw Woodside Petroleum publicly backing a Yes vote, while simultaneously ignoring actual First Nations voices as it damaged the world's oldest and largest collection of petroglyphs in Murujuga.

In total, over $17 million was gifted to the Yes Campaign by this colony’s “philantropic” billionaires and giants within primary industries.

But why would key players within the extraction industry back an Indigenous Voice To Parliament if our unceded sovereignty posed such a threat, and the Voice was something rooted in that sovereignty? They wouldn’t, and they didn’t.
This agenda was about Constitutional Recognition and eroding our unceded sovereignty.

How do you get rid of a people’s collectively held unceded sovereignty in a way that is recognised under international law and the United Nations, especially when said people no longer have fully functioning governance structures and institutions with which to sign a surrender? Through a general referendum of the population, that’s how.

There are several examples the world over that demonstrate this process in action, such as referenda of independence for Timor-Leste (1999), South Sudan (2011), Eritrea (1993), Palau (1983 - 1994) or Montenegro (2006); or referenda on continued association or integration such as those of Scotland (2014), Quebec (1980, 1995), Puerto Rico (multiple times) or new caledonia/Kanaky (2018, 2020, 2021) just to name but a few.

This is where Constitutional Recognition comes from. In fact, this iteration of constitutional recognition was first proposed to the public by the Young Liberal faction of the Liberal-National Coalition in the 90’s, and was even included as a line in John Howard's 1999 Referendum: “Honouring Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, the nation’s first people.”

Then, in October 2007, about a month before the federal election, Howard promised another referendum to amend the Constitution’s Preamble — including a “statement of reconciliation and recognition of Indigenous Australians and their place in the nation” — if he was re-elected.

The purpose of constitutional recognition was to legally and symbolically merge our unceded sovereignty into the sovereignty of the Crown and the federated colonies — without a treaty, without true consent, and without a mechanism to revoke or renegotiate. In international law, this is an act of extinguishment masquerading as inclusion.

On zionism And Its Connection To The Voice

You may be wondering why zionism is mentioned above.

Aside from australia’s historic and ongoing support of the zionist occupation, and the obvious similarities between the australian colonial occupation and the israeli colonial occupation — the settler-colonial framework both operate under, the history of open-air concentration camps and ongoing mass detainment, and the theft of land and resources through a targetted campaign of genocide that targets the elderly, women and children with a savage rigour — there underlies a deeper, material connection between zionism and the Voice To Parliament.

The co-chair of the Referendum Council was none other than Mark Leibler; ex-president of the Zionist Federation of Australia and current chairman of the Australian-Israel Jewish Affairs Committee. Leibler was an integral part of the Voice To Parliament, and along with it the coercive Constitutional Recognition that Labor tried to usher in under the guise of an “Indigenous Advisory Body”. In fact, Leibler's participation in this agenda can be dated back to at least 2005, where he served as a founding member of ex-LNP PM John Howard’s ‘Reconciliation Australia’, and sat as co-chair for the first 6 years of its operation.

Mark Leibler (left) addressing the attendees of the 2017 First Nations National Constitutional Convention. Noel Pearson pictured far right.

It may interest the readers to learn that Mark Leibler is also directly responsible for co-authoring the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’, despite the lies and propaganda that would have you believe that this emotive statement was a call from Aboriginal elders and First Nations communities.

It is little wonder as to why so many of the prominent Indigenous proponents of the Voice To Parliament — such as Marcia Langton, Nova Peris, and Noel Pearson just to name a few — are all long-term ardent supporters of the israeli colonial project and have all enjoyed diplomatic excursions to the apartheid occupation. These individuals represent a class of elite Aboriginal compradors captured not only by the australian colony, but by zionism as well. These aren’t just individuals with bad politics — they are part of an elite Aboriginal managerial class produced by and for the settler state. They exist to manage Black dissent, pacify resistance, and give the colony a façade of legitimacy while our people are killed, caged, and erased.

Picture of philanthropists, including known zionists, who contributed funding to the VTP Referendum. Left to right: Julie Kantor, Annamila First Nations Foundation; Tabitha Lovett, Besen Family Foundation; Leonard Vary, The Myer Foundation; Kristy Muir, Paul Ramsay Foundation; Georgina Byron, The Snow Foundation; Kate Kennedy, Barlow Impact Group; Jill Reichstein, Reichstein Foundatio; Sarah Hardy, The Ross Trust; Caitriona Fay, Perpetual; Catherine Brown, Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation; Maree Sidey, Australian Communities Foundation. Eamon Gallagher

In conclusion: Do You Get It Yet?

It’s disappointing, though not surprising, that many “progressives” voted Yes, and would still vote Yes if given the opportunity today.

Many of these people either haven’t listened, haven’t learnt, or simply don’t care.

Many fundamentally still believe in the legitimacy of the australian occupation, still put faith in the same political parties that keep us incarcerated, impoverished, and dispossessed, and still ignore the fact that this so-called ‘Indigenous Voice’ is the product of zionist influence, elite comprador ambition, and the australian colony’s attempts at eroding our unceded political sovereignty for resource extraction.

Many people are either incapable or unwilling to reconcile with the fact that the australian colonial government can’t and won’t challenge its role in upholding genocidal occupations abroad, and that it is even more incapable of challenging the apartheid, genocide and occupation that are the very bones of its own foundations.

Decolonisation is not inclusion or recognition. It is the full return of land, political authority, and cultural autonomy to First Nations people — and it is the dismantling of the colonial institutions that maintain occupation.

Our sovereignty demands more than passive solidarity or performative politics. It demands rigour. It demands that you interrogate not just what you believe, but why — and who benefits from these beliefs. If your analysis ends at inclusion, at symbolic reform, at votes cast in the occupier’s house, then it was never analysis to begin with — it was comfort. It’s time to confront the role we all play in upholding the systems we claim to oppose. Decolonisation won’t come from anyone's good intentions. It will come when enough of us stop siding with the colony, and start standing with those trying to dismantle it.

The Voice: its zionist influence and origins in extraction