Voice result disappointing, despite strong local support

Although the outcome of the recent Voice to Parliament referendum was discouraging, activists who campaigned for the Yes vote took solace from the very strong local result. Across Annerley and surrounding booths, the Yes vote averaged around 60-70%. Throughout the campaign leading up to 14 October, local residents expressed robust support for the Voice, with incredible attendances at community events and forums.

However, in the face of a massive – and deliberate – disinformation campaign led by the Coalition, far Right groups and the extremist Murdoch media, Australians rejected the proposed constitutional changes.

Despite this set back, supporters of a more just, more inclusive Australia have acknowledged that the result is certainly ‘not the end’, as the struggle for justice and equality for First Nations peoples continues.

Since 14 October, many Annerley Labor members have publicly expressed that they stand in solidarity with First Nations people, that they will walk with them and renew the fight for truth, justice and equality.

Call for action on national broadcaster

After almost a decade of cuts and political interference under previous Coalition governments, Annerley Labor has called on the Albanese government to restore funding to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and guarantee its independence and integrity.

As part of its appeal to the federal Labor government, the Branch has supported reforms to ensure that all ABC board appointments are undertaken through a rigorous, transparent and meritorious process. In recent years, perceived and actual political influence over appointments to the ABC Board and Chair have created serious doubt about the ABC’s independence.

Branch members have also expressed strong concern over the ABC’s obsession of giving the extremist and pro-Coalition Institute of Public Affairs, a regular platform on several of its programs. Many people have also cited the high level of disinformation during the Voice referendum debate as to why is it is important to have a public broadcaster with a statutory duty to report based on facts.

Annerley Labor believes that our national broadcaster performs an important role in ‘ensuring access to a strong, healthy, diverse and independent media, operating in the public interest’ and that effective integrity reforms will be essential.

Push for greater animal welfare oversight

Endorsing a campaign by the Australian Alliance for Animals, Annerley Labor members have requested that the Federal Minister for Agriculture, Senator Murray Watt, support an expansion of the functions of the newly created ‘Inspector-General of Animal Welfare and Live Animal Exports’.

Although welcoming the creation of an “Inspector-General of Animal Welfare and Live Animal Exports”, many animal welfare organisations are concerned that the new body is unfortunately a simple re-branding of the existing Inspector-General of Live Animal Exports.

As a result, the Australian Alliance for Animals is recommending that the Inspector General’s role should be expanded to include oversight of animal welfare standards in all Commonwealth-regulated fields as well as public reporting on the implementation of national animal welfare standards.

Saving our native banana

The Branch has written to the Federal and State Environment Ministers, calling on them to change the current conservation status of the Musa jackeyi (pictured) to critically endangered and to urgently develop a species recovery plan within the next 12 months.

The Musa jackeyi is only one of two native bananas in Australia, and the only banana that is unique to Australia. Presently the Musa jackeyi is restricted in distribution to lowland rainforests in the wet tropics of Queensland near Cairns.

The population of M. jackeyi in the wild has crashed, and the main threatening process for this species has been feral pigs, which consume the young seedlings. Musa jackeyi has disappeared from all locations where this species has been recorded in the last 30 years, there are concerns that it may already be extinct in the wild.

Branch members have noted concerns that the Musa jackeyi may have the inglorious distinction of being the first Australian native species to become extinct during the stewardship of the Albanese Government.