When some question like this is put to the people in a referendum, the people tend to make the correct choice. It must be very frustrating for people like you.

Exactly badger. Some posters clearly don’t read or can’t understand. Imagine a black person had 2 votes to a white person 1 vote. This in effect is what the Aussies voted against and rightly so. I thought the whole point of all these new breed of societies was for getting equality. Obs not if you is not white.

Of course they should, to have a referendum at all is perverse.

A term I avoid but it is, for a change, actually racism.

It should never have happened, was bound to dissolve into it, and it did.

A bad day for Australia, to see their discomfort is quite a sight.

That might be today's simple truth but we must look beyond today, and indeed beyond tomorrow. Defining what happens next is often ignored in the rush to deal with the immediate.

Iran and radical Islam are indeed a major problem but why do they exist? What has created them and how do we help to turn people away from it? There are many in Iran who would be very pleased to see their country become a modern democracy. Not all Islamic countries are radical, so there are models to be found.

Israel responding in the way they are to the atrocities committed by Hamas is probably exactly what Hamas wanted to happen. Israel is rapidly being seen as an aggressor and not a victim.

Hamas don't care about civilian casualties, or losing their own fighters.

So I worry that Israel in responding in the way they always do when provoked is making the problem worse. A more nuanced, thoughtful and targetted response which clearly tries to protect the long suffering innocent, whilst being ruthless with Hamas itself, would keep the rest of the world onside and perhaps see a shorter route to a long term solution.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

The thing is though that voting against this is racist. I would have voted on the basis that I did not want to hand a specific minority additional power over me despite that minority being the indigenous race.

My reasoning would have been racist. And I would have had no problem with that. People need to get over this fear of the 'R' word. We live in a world now in which we can see mass demonstrations on the streets of London calling for an effectively ethnostate i.e a Palastinian homeland v a Jewish one.

There is literally not one single voice advocating for any kind of multicultural solution.

There is nothing wrong in supporting your own racial group over another anymore. Our own politicians proclaim support for Israel which is by any definition an Ethno-State whilst many on the Left supported a Palestinian one in return.

There are no voices proclaiming some sort of harmonious interaction between the two. And it is liberating on all kinds of levels.

Embrace the new reality.

Anybody who is not Aboringe in Australia is a migrant.

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - 1984 - George Orwell.