"Soulless": Stan Grant finally breaks silence over Voice defeat
Stan Grant has finally broken his silence over the devastating Voice to Parliament defeat, saying the nation failed to "shoulder the load" of Indigenous Australians.
In his first public comments since the referendum results were announced, the Indigenous journalist said the resounding No vote was a "judgment on me and all the others like me", along with generations of Indigenous people.
His scathing comments came during an address at the Australian National University's Crawford Leadership Forum, where the former Q+A host reflected on the referendum result.
"The voice was never about resentment, it was never about identity - it was a release, it was a moment to lay our burdens down," he said.
"But Australia would not shoulder that load. Instead, we got a lecture about unity."
"Those who own history claimed for themselves history's final word: 'No'."
Grant went on to say that the overwhelming defeat of the referendum made clear that there would be no further advancements in the rights of Indigenous Australians during his lifetime, as long as it was left up to the public.
"We have laid the sod over (my ancestors), sealed them in," he said.
"I thought in me they may be able to speak, that those two sides of me might find a common voice. But we said 'No' to that."
"My country has buried my ancestors for a second time. I am hearing the cold-hearted 'no' of a country so comfortable it need not care."
"A country that feels, right now, soulless. A country of numbers, and no words but one: 'No'."
Grant finished his scathing tirade by calling out the Yes campaign for not "letting the Voice speak", while also calling for more radical change, saying the Voice proposal was "shushed, shrunk small enough to fit into politics".
"In the consultants' suites and the lawyers' dens, it was determined that if the voice was made so inoffensive, people may say 'Yes'."
"Instead, it was so inoffensive people found it so easy to say 'No'."
"The constitution is not our problem - our conscience is our problem."
Image credits: Q+A