This work explores the aftermath of Australia’s October 2023 referendum, where a majority voted against enshrining an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in the Constitution. The rejection highlighted the entrenched denial of Australia’s colonial history and the enduring dispossession of First Nations peoples. Drawing parallels, the author examines Australia’s harsh treatment of asylum seekers over the past twenty-five years, revealing a systemic and state-sanctioned pattern of abuse, including indefinite detention and conditions amounting to torture. Using psychoanalytic frameworks from Freud and Klein, the analysis delves into Australia’s collective psyche, characterised by denial, melancholia and a refusal to confront historical truths. This psychological state has fuelled destructive policies, perpetuated national apathy and undermined efforts for reconciliation. The campaign against the referendum is emblematic of this malaise, employing slogans that promoted ignorance and fear over dialogue and understanding. The work underscores the urgent need for truth-telling and recognition of colonial violence to address the deep-rooted anxieties steering the nation’s politics. Without this reckoning, Australia risks remaining in a state of collective melancholia, disconnected from the reality of its history and incapable of meaningful change.