LEADERS of Australia’s Aboriginal people have sensationally scuppered moves by well-meaning lefties to condemn them to perpetual ghetto status as victims of “racism”.

A referendum offering First Nation voters — 3.8 per cent of the population — a “Voice” on government decision-making was defeated on Saturday by a thumping 60-40 majority.

The verdict was hailed as a vote for common sense by No campaigners and slammed as a sell-out by the defeated Yes lobby.

Humiliatingly for Labour PM Anthony Albanese, the Voice offer was rejected in all six states.

His only support came from the metropolitan elite and Canberra’s public sector “Blob”.

It was the second upset Down Under for the political left, with New Zealand simultaneously booting out its once-invincible Labour government.

The party, led by former socialist pin-up Jacinda Ardern through the harshest Covid lockdown outside Communist China, had once been hailed as “the future” for Western democracies.

But in a “bloodbath” for Labour, the conservative National Party stormed to victory in what The Guardian described as the start of a “new right-leaning” era for the country.

Recently elected Albanese might also be on the way out after damaging his authority with an unnecessary and obscure referendum.

Far from waltzing to victory, he was buried by the very people he claimed to be trying to help.

There may be a lesson here for British Tories.

In a victory speech which deserves a wider audience, Aboriginal mum of four Jacinta Nampijinpa Price urged politicians to stop using race as a divisive political football.

The Conservative senator, who spent the campaign criss-crossing Australia talking to indigenous people, blamed Albanese for “gaslighting” indigenous people — casting doubt on their sanity.

Visibly emotional, the former deputy mayor of Alice Springs spoke for all Aussies who have battled to right the wrongs of early settlers.

“The vast majority of Australians want what’s best for each and every one of us — including marginalised indigenous Australians,” she said.

“They have said NO to the gaslighting, the bullying, the manipulation, NO to the grievances and the push from activists to suggest we are a racist country when we are absolutely not a racist country.”

Political pawns

Her words are likely to hit a nerve with voters here in Britain and perhaps across Europe who have long resented knee-jerk charges of institutionalised racism.

Saturday’s referendum was a disastrous unforced error for Albanese, who assumed his vague plan to give indigenous people a legally enforceable “Voice” would be a walkover.

Instead, it ended in anger and recrimination, with his badly-shaken team calling for a week of public mourning.

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They stood accused of stoking grievances and using native Australians as political pawns.

Albanese’s support evaporated after he repeatedly refused to say how much power the Voice would hand to a handful of citizens while denying it to the vast majority.

Aboriginal affairs have been at the forefront of politics Down Under for decades.

Labour PM Gough Whitlam first delivered land rights and protected sacred sites in the 1970s.

Education, legal protections and welfare reforms followed.

Harmed, not helped

As a regular visitor to Australia I can testify to the transformation, not just in race relations but in appreciation of the Aboriginal people on equal terms.

Indigenous history and culture was part of every school curriculum and a feature of art galleries and museums long before the creation of Black Lives Matter.

Jacinta Price points to the prosperity and success of her people outside traditional Northern Territory settlements.

Increasing numbers are graduating from university.

She has spoken out against unpopular moves to abolish Australia Day, the anniversary of the 1788 First Fleet’s arrival in Sydney.

And she claims indigenous communities have been harmed, not helped, by the “special treatment” which separates them from mainstream society.

She is frequently bombarded with hate mail and pilloried as a “coconut” — black on the outside and white on the inside.

But Jacinta insists: “If we keep telling Aboriginal people they are victims, we are giving them the expectation that someone else is responsible for their lives.

“That is the worst possible thing you can do to any human being.”