The irony. With many Indigenous leaders declaring a week of silence to grieve last weekend's referendum result, Australian politics was largely reduced this week to what the Voice was supposed to address: White people yelling at each other while First Nations people were forced to watch from the sidelines.
There were the metres of analysis of what had happened in the campaign, but more disturbingly, there were the clear signs that not only had the Voice not succeeded but opportunities were being taken.
In South Australia, a One Nation MP said she would move to repeal its already legislated state-based Voice — though others in the state parliament say this has "zero" chance of happening any time soon.
In Queensland, the LNP withdrew its bipartisan support for a path to treaty, five months after voting for it, and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk blinked — saying the next step would be truth telling and that a path to treaty with First Nations people was "a long way off".
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott wrote in the Australian on Friday that respecting the "people's vote" meant "abandoning or at least scaling back recent concessions to separatism", including "flying the Aboriginal flag co-equally with the national one (as if Australia is a country of two nations) and the routine acknowledgement of country by all speakers at official events (as if those whose ancestry here stretches beyond 1788 are more Australian than everyone else)".
And in Canberra, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton tried to progress his case for a royal commission into the alleged sexual abuse of Aboriginal children, and an audit of finances.
"Somehow, we don't see this as a priority in this parliament, or the prime minister doesn't see it as a priority for this parliament to call for a royal commission to understand what is happening," Dutton said, raising the obvious question of why this was suddenly a priority — or the great solution — in 2023, but not for the 10 years the Coalition was in government.
Archer votes against her party
Liberal backbencher Bridget Archer voted against her party when Dutton moved for the royal commission in the House of Representatives, accusing the opposition leader of appearing to be "weaponising" the issue for "some perceived political advantage".
A group of 35 care providers and experts released a statement which noted that the latest Australian Child Maltreatment Study revealed the majority of Australians (62 per cent) have experienced at least one type of child abuse or neglect and that "child abuse is far too prevalent in Australia, full stop".
"Singling out Aboriginal families and communities is harmful and puts ideology before evidence," the statement from the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care said.
"Australian Institute for Health and Welfare data shows that, in 2021-22, substantiated child protection reports for Indigenous children were less likely to identify sexual abuse as the primary type of abuse (6.8 per cent of substantiations) than they were for non-Indigenous children (9 per cent of substantiations).”
The calls for a royal commission, the group said, "play into the basest negative perceptions of some people about Aboriginal people and communities".
Bridget Archer noted that the Coalition had argued during the referendum campaign that Australia should not be divided by race, "yet we are singling out abuse in Indigenous communities", she said.
Having promised in the campaign to hold a second referendum on constitutional recognition, Dutton walked away from that on Monday. As did Nationals leader David Littleproud, who had earlier pledged his "leadership to restart a process to get recognition if the referendum failed".
The Middle East powder keg
For his part, the prime minister has been marking time this week on where to go next, determined to let things settle, to give Indigenous people some space. The danger of this, of course, is that he also waited to get involved in campaigning for the Yes case on the basis that he didn't want it to be politicised.
But the campaign, and the way the politics has unfolded, has confirmed we are in new political territory where there seems little restraint, or even regard for the truth, shown not just by fringe players but players central to our politics.
There could hardly be a more dangerous time for this, in terms of where politics or national unity goes, with the situation in the Middle East — always a complete powder keg — deteriorating so badly.
Australia now has big communities of Muslim and Arab Australians, as well as Jewish Australians. That makes how politicians speak about the complexities of the recent appalling violence all the more difficult.
Many in politics went in very hard in support of Israel in the first days after the Hamas attack.
But finding a path to tread when statistics suggest more lives have now been lost among people in Gaza seems to have been a tougher ask.
In parliament on Monday, Labor MPs led by Anthony Albanese condemned the Hamas actions but acknowledged what was happening in Gaza too, and urged restraint on Israel.
Coalition MPs were less nuanced and had much less to say about the cost to Palestinian civilians.
When cabinet minister Ed Husic — the first Muslim elected to the parliament — emerged on Thursday, saying, "I feel very strongly that Palestinians are being collectively punished here for Hamas' barbarism", there was one of those political moments where a previous line had been crossed and it was not immediately clear how things would develop.
Would Labor colleagues disown Husic? Would the Coalition try to exploit it?
LoadingThe most dangerous thing for the government
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been a finely balanced issue within Labor. But while observing that everyone had their own way of expressing their views, Husic's colleagues did not walk away from him.
Husic had, after all, been very careful in his comments.
"Israel has paid a terrible price for the barbarism of Hamas and the other thing that has to happen as well is the absolute unconditional release of Israeli hostages," he told RN Breakfast.
"Israelis have paid a high price but I'm also worried about the price Palestinians are paying and are going to pay."
By speaking of collective punishment, however, which is a war crime, he was taking a harder line on how events in Gaza play out.
Loading...Peter Dutton had said this week that there "must be no restraint shown" in the way Israel responded to Hamas.
And he and his deputy Sussan Ley sought to play the local politics of the issue by suggesting there were now deep divisions within the government over the Middle East.
While the positions of both sides of politics in the past week may resonate with the Indigenous, Jewish, Arabic and Muslim communities who have every reason to be hyper-sensitive to what our political leaders say, the feedback we have seen from the referendum suggests many Australians will be completely oblivious to most of this.
All the talk about news fatigue and misinformation campaigns are one thing. But the most dangerous thing for the government, but also for the tone of our national discussion, may well be a deterioration in the economy — and/or another interest rate hike in the wake of the Middle East tensions.
Sullenness over personal circumstances, and resentment about others, only ever gets worse in such circumstances and becomes a dangerous crucible for those who want to stir division.
Laura Tingle is 7.30's chief political correspondent.
Editor’s note, November 19: This article has been updated to reflect an updated version of SNAICC’s statement which clarifies that substantiated child protection reports for Indigenous children are less likely to identify sexual abuse as the primary type of abuse than for non-Indigenous children. The previous version said Indigenous children were less likely to the subject of a substantiated notification of child sexual abuse.