Australia’s last mood was completely about indigenous people

On the trip to Yarrabah there is nothing that suggests that a national election is only a few days away.

Posters for candidates, inescapable in other parts of Australia, are strikingly absent when you drive along fields of sugar cane and along a soft winding coastal road.

After entering this small indigenous community near Cairns in the distant north of Queensland, with fishing nets that are lined on the Palm, the only thing that fights for attention is a truck that sells ice in a bell that avoids wild horses and dogs that wander through the streets.

“It’s strange,” says Suzanne Andrews, Chief Executive of the Gurriny Yealamucka Health Services of the city. “We don’t see any placards. Nobody visits us.”

The Jaru Bunuba Bardi woman saw how the leaders of the two major parties of Australia debate on television, was apparent that “they didn’t talk about Aboriginal issues or worries”.

“So,” she asks “what the hell is going on?”

Native Australians, who represent about 3.8% of the 26 million population of the country, are the most social -poor people in the country by most social -economic measures – something suddenly leaders have called “national shame” for years.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Anthony Albanian and opposition leader Peter Dutton have little to say about the issues of First Nations in this election campaign.

A striking exception took place this week, when Dutton said during the last leader’s debate that the native “Welcome to the country” ceremonies – where a local Aboriginal person recognizes and gave permission for events that took place on their traditional countries – “exaggerated” and may not take place so often.

The comments represent one of the few times on the campaign track that Dutton has tackled public issues, specifically with regard to First Nations people – and not to discuss the disadvantage, but in the context of a cultural war.

Part of the reason that politicians try to stay the first nation issues from the neighborhood, according to experts and proponents, is that many believe that they are too divided and are therefore electoral – especially after the voice failed to the referendum of parliament in 2023.

That referendum, which was loudly supported by Albanians at the most polarizing moment of his leadership, saw 60% of voters propose a proposal To recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander -people in the Constitution of Australia and to give them more politics through a voice to the parliament.

Those who were opposite said that the idea was divided, would create special “classes” from citizens where some have more rights than others, and the new advisory body would delay the decision -making of the government.

In anticipation of the mood, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Strait Islander told Islander on both sides of the debate The BBC that they hoped that the unprecedented level of interest in their lives would build up momentum for more policy to improve them.

Mrs. Andrews was one of them. But now she looks back on the result with sadness, because she believes that it has now led to political parties to avoid “playing safely” and “the hot Aboriginal problems”.

Others, including those who were loudly against the voice proposal, agree.

On referendum evening the prominent anti-voice campaigner Warren Mundine the BBC “Now the hard work starts”.

About 18 months later he says that the reality is that people on both sides of the political aisle are immediately unleashed with indigenous issues after the referendum.

“This is one of the sad things of this election campaign here: whether the voice came up or did not stand up, we still had work to do,” he said.

“What happened now is that this is probably the first election in which I was where there is no conversation about an Aboriginal policy. It just became quiet.”

Lidia Thorpe, an independent senator in Victoria, told the BBC that “Albanian is especially afraid of calling us (native Australians) because of his failed referendum that we should never have had in the first place”.

Thorpe led a native Run Blak Sovereine movement that opposed the voice and instead called for priority to a legally binding treaty between First Nations Peoples and the Australian government.

“In earlier elections, although we may have been a side issue and at the end of the sentences were tackled, as we are always, we were at least called. Now the full silence is,” she said.

“This election could be a real chance for both leaders to unite the nation and tell some truth about the plight of our people. They must tell the truth that these injustice will continue, and they must tell the truth that they are able to change that, to reverse that.”

Since 2008, the closure of the GAP strategy of the Australian government has tried to reduce the levels of native disadvantage by the annual tracking of 18 important measures in areas such as health and education.

However, the last review showed that there were only four on their way, while four deteriorates – including the annual rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander reclining, which rose by 12% in a year.

Despite these trends, Professor Rodney Smith of the University of Sydney says that the defeat of the voice – including in many Labor Bolwerken – makes the “electoral fool” to talk too much about First Nations Easters these elections.

He points to coalition advertisements that bind money “wasted” to the referendum – which has cost an estimated more than $ A400M – in the discussion about costs of living and a struggling economy.

Prof. Smith also claims that the 2025 elections are not unprecedented in the lack of focus on indigenous things, but rather a return to the norm after a few years of the problems that get more attention than normal.

“I am not saying that people should not give up,” he says. “I’m just saying that the electorate in general doesn’t really care.”

Recent data from Australian National University (ANU) seem to support that. A long -term study of the voters’ attitudes showed that between January 2024 and January 2025 there was a sharp decrease in the number of people who were the government’s responsibility to reduce the gap in living norms between Australians of First Nations and the rest of the population.

“This lack of policy focus (by labor and the coalition) reflects a low prioritization among the Australian population,” said Professor Nicholas Biddle of Anu.

Independent MP Bob Katter places the Botter.

A former Aboriginal Affairs Minister When a Member of Parliament is in Queensland in the 1980s, Mr Katter says that he is thinking about the struggles of many native Australians “every night before I go to bed”.

He told the BBC that he believes in more self -administration and campaign to give more access to farms and fishing rights.

However, he also admits that he is not talking about those issues on the campaign track.

“If politician who has to win votes in the elections, I would not be a game,” he told the BBC.

That is difficult for many indigenous people to take the toll that the referendum has taken – on both sides of the debate.

A report Published by Sydney’s University of Technology last month it turned out that the voting referendum led to an increase in hostile levels of racism towards First Nations People, with 453 “validated” incidents of racism for about six months on both sides of the vote.

About one fifth of all complaints contained mention of the failed referendum.

“Although an important thought and debate was given to the ideas of building nation and the right of errors, the undercurrent of racism was always present,” said Professor Lindon Coombes of the report in his introduction.

“This is his traitor.”

In Yarrabah, Mrs. Andrews suddenly becomes tearing and tells how her two daughters, who studied at the University in Brisbane, were intimidated and received “so many racist comments” after the mood.

“To do this to young people who have left the community to improve their lives and to be something, is so wrong,” she said.

It was not only increased racism that caused damage, but the tone and intensity of the debate prior to the vote, many say.

Mr. Mundine says that his participation in the toxic and polarized national discussion meant that he felt alienated from many in his community.

“I got rid of shoveling boards. I lost jobs … (i) was banned.”

“Being the subject of every discussion for such a long period was overwhelming and extremely harmful to people’s social and emotional well-being,” says Clinton Schultz, a Gamilaroi/Gomeroi man, psychologist and director of First Nations Strategy at the Black Dog Institute.

“The aftermath of that has many people who are not willing to participate in the debates that will continue.”

Millima May, a Kulumbirigin Danggalaba Tiwi woman from the Northern Territory, told in 2023 in 2023 that the BBC was all first nations that people wanted, “a seat at the table” where decisions were made about their lives. But now there has been a “tactical” decision by some in the community to “lie low”.

“I think a lot of Aboriginal people have really chosen to unsubscribe from the political space and of such a driven democracy in Australia,” she says.

“If you could trust our political leaders and candidates to have nuanced and informed conversations, you could have debates and conversations in a respectful and safe way.

“But that is not how Australian politics currently works.”

Additional reporting by Tiffanie Turnbull