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Notes -
I'm not pointing entirely to the "this is evidence that we're already coming to our senses" direction. There's also the "getting crushed in a referendum - as is looking likely - builds consensus against the thing being voted on" direction. It gives One Nation more respectability if they're the only party that took a firm "no" and "no" wins, regardless of whether it was "no" winning properly or a "yes" fumble. The Greens can't claim consensus on this any more if they took their "consensus" to an actual vote and it got crushed.
Now, in the USA this wouldn't matter; tribal loyalty overwhelms national loyalty, this'd just be one more reason to despise the outgroup and fight harder. But in Australia we're not that far gone; stare decisis is a thing that still means something here (note for instance the lack of another republic referendum). Ironically, I got this pointed out to me by SJers worried about it.
Yeah, there's some truth to this - we do tend to be willing to say "Ok, we had that debate, one side won, let's move on". I've certainly heard some Yes supporters arguing that Yes needs to win for exactly this reason - there won't be an opportunity to come back and "do it right", people will just say "Nah we settled that. Not doing it".
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