Australians have emphatically rejected a change to the country’s Constitution with ongoing counts of the national referendum indicating nearly 60 percent of voters have sided against the “Indigenous Voice to Parliament.”
The Voice referendum which was held Oct. 14 is a proposed amendment to the Australian Constitution that would establish a constitutionally enshrined Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
A successful referendum requires a majority of the eligible population to support the proposal, and a majority of states to also be supportive.
However, as of 10:00 p.m. AEST, all states have declared “No” to The Voice with ongoing counting indicating the “Yes” vote is unlikely to catch up.
The Voice proposal involves altering the Constitution to embed a near-permanent advisory body into government that will have the power to “make representations” to the executive and legislature on all matters deemed relevant to Indigenous people.
Another less contentious part of The Voice is to change the wording of the preamble of the Constitution to include recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
The Results Thus Far
As of 10:00 p.m. AEST, ongoing vote counts indicate 59 percent of Australians have rejected The Voice and 41 percent in support.In the country’s most populous state, New South Wales, 58.5 percent of citizens voted No against The Voice, with 41.5 percent voting Yes.
The second most populous state Victoria was close for most of the night but the No vote is pulling ahead at 53.7 percent and 46.3 percent in support.
In Tasmania, 59.1 percent have voted No, with 40.9 percent voting Yes.
An overwhelming 63.9 percent of voters in South Australia have chosen No, while in Queensland—Australia’s third-most populous state—67.4 percent have voted No, Northern Territory (with its high Indigenous population) have also backed the No vote with 64.1 percent.
Western Australia, the last state to start counting due to its timezone, is tracking with a strong No vote at 59.8 percent.
Only the Australian Capital Territory showed strong support for the Yes vote with 62.5 percent approving The Voice, and 37.5 percent in opposition.
Across the country, the highest support for the Yes case generally came from the inner-city electorates, but even strong Labor-held electorates not in immediate proximity to the CBD voted No.
One example is the electorate for Labor’s Indigenous Minister Linda Burney, Barton in the southern Sydney area, with 55.97 percent of voters rejecting The Voice
“Whatever the result tonight, millions of Australians have united in an historic movement for constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Oct. 14.
Of the 44 referendums Australia has held since 1901 only eight have passed.
Yes Advocates Blame ‘Misinformation’ for Losing the Vote
Professor Tom Calma, a key architect behind The Voice proposal blame the opposing campaign for confusing the public.“I’m also very critical of politicians who have been spreading a range of misinformation out there or distorting facts and issues to mislead the population. And that doesn’t bode well for us as a democracy and for us to have confidence in our politicians,” he told the ABC.
While Greens leader Adam Bandt accused No advocates of pushing a “Trumpian campaign of misinformation.”
“Peter Dutton’s Liberals ran a corrosive misinformation campaign that fuelled division and fear,” he said in a statement.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who initiated the referendum, was more gracious in his words and accepted the result.
“Tonight will be a difficult night for many Indigenous Australians,” he told reporters.
“Overwhelmingly, if you look at the Indigenous dominated [polling] booths ... overwhelmingly they voted Yes in the referendum,” he said.
“Tonight is not a time to say, ‘Oh, well, we will move on, and here is the next agenda.’ The agenda will be guided by the principles that I put forward consistently—engagement, consultation, listening, progress to ‘close the gap.’”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the prime minister was wrong to focus on the referendum.
“The prime minister has been consumed by this referendum and they are focused on the wrong priorities. Now, as I say, we do need to turn the page. To unite and to address the many challenges facing our country,” he told reporters.
“We need to give young Australians hope that they can buy their own home. We need to fix the mess of the energy policy so that we can deliver electricity that is affordable and reliable as well as clean.”
While his Shadow Indigenous Minister Jacinta Price repudiated ongoing accusations that the No campaign had engaged in spreading misinformation.
“It has been a shame that throughout the campaign we have been accused of misleading this country through disinformation and misinformation, when it was a campaign of ‘no information’ whatsoever,” she said.
The Key Arguments Behind the ‘No’ Campaign
In the days leading up to the referendum, a final Roy Morgan poll on The Voice conducted from Oct. 2 to the 12 showed 54 percent of those surveyed planned on voting No with 46 percent set to vote Yes.One concern about The Voice has been the lack of detail about the model, the specifics of how it would operate in relation to the Parliament, and its scope of power (some terminology used in the proposed model could have wide interpretations).
Another concern was embedding the Voice into the Australian Constitution. If it was found not to be fit-for-purpose like previous Indigenous representative bodies, it would make it near-impossible to remove, requiring another referendum in the future.
A third concern was how adding another bureaucratic body would assist Indigenous Australians in areas such as self-determination, particularly when existing Indigenous-focused ministers, government bodies, and lobby groups have struggled to “close the gap.”
Prominent Australians who supported the No vote included former Prime Ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard.
The High Profile Campaign for Yes
The Yes campaign benefitted from support from an array of high-profile individuals and some of Australia’s largest organisations and companies.Reasons that people indicated they voted Yes include the belief that The Voice was a necessary tool for improving outcomes for Indigenous Australians in areas such as health, education, employment, and housing.
Some notable supporters include former Prime Ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Paul Keating; sports stars such as Cathy Freeman, Adam Goodes, and Nathan Buckley; as well as entertainers including Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Naomi Watts, and Missy Higgins.
The country’s largest businesses, like Qantas and BHP, have also supported The Voice, as well as 20 of the country’s largest sporting leagues.
