After an election, combatants normally have a cooling off period to reflect, digest, and adjust before parliament resumes.
This dust-settling process, while counting is finalised and writs are returned, can last weeks, sometimes even months, before everyone files back to Canberra to face off again.
Not so with a referendum.
Parliament resumes this morning, with the scars from Saturday night’s vote count still raw.
The dust is far from settled and the government still hasn’t worked out how best to explain where this referendum campaign went so wrong or, importantly, how it will tackle Indigenous disadvantage without a Voice.
The initial instinct has been to blame the other side for the referendum failure. The prime minister points to the lack of bipartisanship and blatant misinformation from the No camp for this overwhelming defeat.
It’s certainly true misinformation was spread during the campaign. But it’s hard to argue 60 per cent of the nation was misled into voting No.
Ultimately, the government and Yes campaign need to reflect on their own role in this outcome.
How did the high levels of support for the Voice slide so far? Why wasn’t there a better response to misinformation? Why couldn’t the falsehoods be sufficiently countered? Why were so many still unsure about this simple proposition?
Blaming the other side or the media is easy, and fair to a point, but this is not a complete response to such a resounding referendum verdict.
As Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles acknowledged on Insiders yesterday, the Australian people “always get it right”. No government can argue the majority got it wrong.
Fortunes shift with Voice’s defeat
Anthony Albanese, for his part, has accepted responsibility for the defeat and spoke on Saturday night about not letting division define us.
He showed conviction in pursuing the Voice and will make a virtue of this. Yes voters may well agree it’s good to see a prime minister stand up for something he believes in.
Ultimately though, this referendum has ended in a heavy defeat and inflicted pain on many Indigenous Australians.
It’s a blow for Albanese, at least in the short term.
Still, the government is likely to avoid prolonged political pain over this.
It will use the forum of parliament to shift the agenda.
Expect to hear plenty about cost of living, the crisis in Israel and Gaza and everything else on the government’s to-do list.
Labor is sensitive to the charge it’s been bogged down in a campaign that’s now ended in failure. The coming weeks will be action-packed.
The Coalition won’t want to dwell for too long on the Voice either.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will enjoy a confidence boost after this result. Sixty per cent of the nation sided with his argument. He will no doubt go after the prime minister today for devoting so much time to the Voice, but he’ll need to move on, too.
Dutton doesn’t want to be defined as Mr No, particularly if the Liberal leader is to have any hope of winning back Yes-voting teal seats. A first step in reaching out to Yes voters might be returning Julian Leeser to the shadow ministry.
Unquestionably the biggest political winner from this whole bruising exercise has been Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. The shadow minister for Indigenous Australians drove the No vote and has boosted her standing within conservative ranks.
Yet neither side of politics has much of a plan B at this stage to tackle Indigenous disadvantage. The government wants to take stock and take some time before working out where it goes next on Closing the Gap or any truth telling process.
The Coalition’s only ideas include more reviews: an inquiry into sexual abuse in remote communities and another audit of indigenous spending.
As for some other form of constitutional recognition, as suggested by Dutton, that seems far-fetched without the support of Indigenous Australians. And Labor is in no mood right now to bowl up another referendum on anything, either this term or next.
So, while the political caravan will move on, the problems for Indigenous Australians remain.
The World Observer Media produces a daily online newspaper, a daily Arabic online newspaper and a monthly printed Arabic/English magazine and a weekly printed Arabic/English newspaper.
The World Observer Media’s mission is to entertain and educate all generation from the Ethnic Communities in Australia, who are interested in local, national and foreign information. 
