On the journey into Alaba, nothing can hint that the national election is only a few days away.

The candidate’s poster is inevitable in other parts of Australia, and is clearly absent when you drive through sugar cane and along a gently winding coastal road.

After entering this small Aboriginal community near Cairns, Queensland, the fishing nets sat on the palm-lined shore, and the only thing that was to be aware of was the truck selling ice cream – the bell was urgently pierced as it avoided the wild horses and dogs wandering the streets.

“It’s weird,” said Suzanne Andrews, CEO of Gurriny Yealamucka Health Services in the town. "We can't see any placards. No one is visiting us."

Watching the leaders of two major Australian political parties debate each other on TV, Jaru bunuba Bardi's women were frustrated, "they didn't talk about any Aboriginal issues or concerns".

"So," she asked, "what the hell is going on?"

Under most socio-economic measures, the indigenous people, with an area of ​​26 million people, are about 3.8% of the population, the most vulnerable in the country – what serial leaders have called “national shame” for years.

However, during this campaign, Prime Minister Anthony Albanes and opposition leader Peter Dutton had little to say on the issue of Aboriginal peoples.

A distinct exception occurred this week, when leaders said in the final debate that Dutton said the Indigenous “Welcome to the State” ceremony – local Aboriginals acknowledged and agreed to the consent of events that occurred on their traditional lands – should not have been done so frequently.

These comments represent one of the only time Dutton openly resolves issues related to Aboriginal peoples during the campaign, rather than discussing disadvantages in the context of cultural warfare.

Experts and advocates say that part of the reason politicians are trying to avoid the Aboriginal problem is that many think they are too divided and therefore risk the election - especially after the 2023 voice failed to vote to parliament.

The referendum was loudly supported by Albanes at the most polarizing moment of his leadership, with 60% of voters rejecting a proposal to recognize the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Australian Constitution and to provide them with a greater political voice through voices to parliament.

Opponents say the idea is split and will create a special “class” of citizens, some with more rights than others, while new consulting agencies will slow down government decisions.

Before the vote, both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders on both sides of the debate told the BBC they hope that their unprecedented level of interest in their lifetime will establish more policies to improve them.

Ms. Andrews is one of them. But now she looks back on the results in a sad way, he believes it has now led to the parties "safely functioning" and avoiding "hot Aboriginal issues."

Others, including those who loudly opposed the voice proposal, agreed.

On referendum night, prominent counterattack activist Warren Mundine told the BBC that “becoming hard now”.

He said about 18 months later, the reality was that people on both sides of the political aisle were immediately disconnected from the Indigenous issues after the referendum.

"This is one of the sad things about this campaign here: Whether the voice wakes up or not, we still have work to do," he said.

"What's going on now is that this is probably the first election I've been in without a conversation about Aboriginal policies. It just keeps silent."

Victoria's independent senator Lidia Thorpe told the BBC that "Albanese is particularly afraid of mentioning us (Australians) because of his failed referendum, and we should never have had a referendum in the first place."

Thorpe led the Aboriginal Brak sovereignty movement against the voice, calling for priority to legally binding treaties between the Aboriginal people and the Australian government.

"In previous elections, even if we might be the end of the sentence, as we always did, at least we were mentioned. Now it's total silence."

"This election could be a real opportunity for two leaders to unite the country and speak the truth about the plight of our people. They need to speak these unjust and persistent facts, and they need to speak the truth about their ability to change that position in order to change that goal."

Since 2008, the Australian government has ended its gap strategy, trying to reduce the level of Indigenous disadvantage by annually following 18 key measures in areas such as health and education.

However, the latest reviews found that there were only four goals that could be met, and four were deteriorating – including the annual rate of incarceration for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration, up 12% over the year.

Despite these trends, Professor Rodney Smith of the University of Sydney said that failures in many labor sites, including many labor sites, made people "election stupid" and talked about too much about Aboriginal elections.

He noted that the “waste” money on the referendum (which is estimated to cost more than $1.4 billion) is in discussions about the cost of living and the struggle economy.

However, Professor Smith also believes that the lack of attention to Indigenous affairs in the 2025 election is not unprecedented, but rather a matter of more focus than usual after years of issues, which is a return to norm.

“I’m not saying people shouldn’t care about that,” he said. “I’m just saying that voters don’t care about it in general.”

The latest data from the Australian National University (ANU) seems to support this. A long-term study of voter attitudes found that between January 2024 and January 2025, the number of people who are believed to have a responsibility to reduce the standard of living gap between Aboriginal Australians and other populations has dropped sharply.

"This lack of policy priorities (labor and coalition) reflects the lower priority of Australia's population," said Nicholas Biddle, professor Nicholas Biddle.

Independent Congressman Bob Katter is even more outspoken.

Mr Kate, a Queensland State Councilor in the 1980s, said he was a former Aboriginal Minister of Civil Affairs, and he said he thought about the struggles of many Aboriginal Australians, "I go to bed every night before I go to bed."

He told the BBC that he believed in more autonomy and campaigned to enable access to breedable land and fishing rights.

He also admitted that he did not talk about these issues on the campaign.

"As a politician who has to win votes in the election, I won't be the season," he told the BBC.

Given the losses caused by the referendum, many indigenous people have a hard time swallowing - on both sides of the debate.

A report published last month by the University of Technology Sydney found that the voice referendum led to an increase in levels of racism against Aboriginal people, recording 453 "verified" racism incidents for about six months.

About one-fifth of the complaints mentioned a failed referendum.

"Although there have been major reflections and debates on the idea and correction of national-building, the undercurrent of racism has always existed," Lindon Coombes, a guest writer for the report, said in the introduction.

"This is its insidiousness."

In Alaba, Ms Andrews burst into tears, telling her how her two daughters, who were studying at the University of Brisbane, were intimidated and received “so many racist rhetoric” after the vote.

“It’s so wrong for young people who have left the community to improve their lives and become things,” she said.

Many say that not only increased racism has done harm, but also the tone and intensity of the debate has led to votes.

Mr Mondin said his involvement in toxic and polarized ethnic discussions meant he felt alienated from many in the community.

"I was pulled off the board. I was unemployed...(I) been excluded."

"Every topic discussed for such a long time is overwhelming and extremely harmful to people's social and emotional well-being," said Clinton Schultz, psychologist and director of Aboriginal Strategy at the Black Dog Institute.

“After the fact, many people were reluctant to participate in the debate.”

Millima May, a Kulumbirigin Danggalaba Tiwi woman from the Northern Territory, told the BBC in 2023 that all the Aboriginal people people want are "seats on the dining table", where decisions about their lives were made. But now, some people in the community have made the “tactical” decision, namely “look down.”

“I think many Aboriginals do choose to exit the political space and are called democracy in Australia,” she said.

“If you can trust our political leaders and candidates to have subtle and informed conversations, you will be able to debate and conversation in a respectful and safe way.

“But that’s not how Australian politics currently works.”

Other reports by Tiffanie Turnbull