Silencing the Voice: the fossil-fuelled Atlas Network’s Campaign against Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australia

Australians will soon vote in a referendum to recognise Indigenous Australia in its 1901 Constitution and establish a First Nations Voice to Parliament. A year ago, polling suggested the referendum proposal of the 2017 National Constitutional Convention and its Uluru Statement from the Heart enjoyed...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal
Main Author: Walker, Jeremy
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: UTS ePRESS, University of Technology Sydney 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/mcs/article/view/8813
https://doi.org/10.5130/ccs.v15.i2.8813
id ftunitsydneyep:oai:epress.lib.uts.edu.au:article/8813
record_format openpolar
spelling ftunitsydneyep:oai:epress.lib.uts.edu.au:article/8813 2023-12-24T10:16:46+01:00 Silencing the Voice: the fossil-fuelled Atlas Network’s Campaign against Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australia Walker, Jeremy 2023-09-30 application/pdf text/html https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/mcs/article/view/8813 https://doi.org/10.5130/ccs.v15.i2.8813 eng eng UTS ePRESS, University of Technology Sydney https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/mcs/article/view/8813/8251 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/mcs/article/view/8813/8267 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/mcs/article/view/8813 doi:10.5130/ccs.v15.i2.8813 Copyright (c) 2023 Jeremy Walker http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal; Vol 15 No 2 (2023) 1837-5391 Indigenous Australia Atlas Network Oil Multinationals Climate Change Neoliberal Constitutionalism info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Peer-reviewed Article 2023 ftunitsydneyep https://doi.org/10.5130/ccs.v15.i2.8813 2023-11-27T23:26:08Z Australians will soon vote in a referendum to recognise Indigenous Australia in its 1901 Constitution and establish a First Nations Voice to Parliament. A year ago, polling suggested the referendum proposal of the 2017 National Constitutional Convention and its Uluru Statement from the Heart enjoyed 60% support. Since lead anti-Voice campaign organisation Advance Australia began its media offensive, the Yes vote has declined to 40%. This article argues the No campaign is being conducted on behalf of fossil-fuel corporations and their allies, whose efforts to mislead the public on life-and-death matters reach back over half a century. Coordinated across the Australian branches of the little-known Atlas Network, a global infrastructure of 500+ ‘think-tanks’ including the Centre for Independent Studies, the Institute of Public Affairs and LibertyWorks, I demonstrate that the No campaign shares the aims and methods of the longstanding Atlas disinformation campaign against climate policy. Opposition to long-overdue constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians can be traced to fears the Voice might strengthen the capacity of Indigenous communities and Australia’s parliamentary democracy to rein in the polluting industries driving us toward climate and ecological collapse. Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations University of Technology, Sydney: UTS ePress - Journals Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 15 2
institution Open Polar
collection University of Technology, Sydney: UTS ePress - Journals
op_collection_id ftunitsydneyep
language English
topic Indigenous Australia
Atlas Network
Oil Multinationals
Climate Change
Neoliberal Constitutionalism
spellingShingle Indigenous Australia
Atlas Network
Oil Multinationals
Climate Change
Neoliberal Constitutionalism
Walker, Jeremy
Silencing the Voice: the fossil-fuelled Atlas Network’s Campaign against Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australia
topic_facet Indigenous Australia
Atlas Network
Oil Multinationals
Climate Change
Neoliberal Constitutionalism
description Australians will soon vote in a referendum to recognise Indigenous Australia in its 1901 Constitution and establish a First Nations Voice to Parliament. A year ago, polling suggested the referendum proposal of the 2017 National Constitutional Convention and its Uluru Statement from the Heart enjoyed 60% support. Since lead anti-Voice campaign organisation Advance Australia began its media offensive, the Yes vote has declined to 40%. This article argues the No campaign is being conducted on behalf of fossil-fuel corporations and their allies, whose efforts to mislead the public on life-and-death matters reach back over half a century. Coordinated across the Australian branches of the little-known Atlas Network, a global infrastructure of 500+ ‘think-tanks’ including the Centre for Independent Studies, the Institute of Public Affairs and LibertyWorks, I demonstrate that the No campaign shares the aims and methods of the longstanding Atlas disinformation campaign against climate policy. Opposition to long-overdue constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians can be traced to fears the Voice might strengthen the capacity of Indigenous communities and Australia’s parliamentary democracy to rein in the polluting industries driving us toward climate and ecological collapse.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Walker, Jeremy
author_facet Walker, Jeremy
author_sort Walker, Jeremy
title Silencing the Voice: the fossil-fuelled Atlas Network’s Campaign against Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australia
title_short Silencing the Voice: the fossil-fuelled Atlas Network’s Campaign against Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australia
title_full Silencing the Voice: the fossil-fuelled Atlas Network’s Campaign against Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australia
title_fullStr Silencing the Voice: the fossil-fuelled Atlas Network’s Campaign against Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australia
title_full_unstemmed Silencing the Voice: the fossil-fuelled Atlas Network’s Campaign against Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australia
title_sort silencing the voice: the fossil-fuelled atlas network’s campaign against constitutional recognition of indigenous australia
publisher UTS ePRESS, University of Technology Sydney
publishDate 2023
url https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/mcs/article/view/8813
https://doi.org/10.5130/ccs.v15.i2.8813
genre First Nations
genre_facet First Nations
op_source Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal; Vol 15 No 2 (2023)
1837-5391
op_relation https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/mcs/article/view/8813/8251
https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/mcs/article/view/8813/8267
https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/mcs/article/view/8813
doi:10.5130/ccs.v15.i2.8813
op_rights Copyright (c) 2023 Jeremy Walker
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
op_doi https://doi.org/10.5130/ccs.v15.i2.8813
container_title Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal
container_volume 15
container_issue 2
_version_ 1786204469466234880