Australia: ‘Indigenous Voice’ referendum rejected at the ballot box | World News

Australia has decisively rejected a proposal to recognise Indigenous people in the constitution, in a major setback to the country’s efforts for reconciliation with its First Peoples.

Early counting showed that 57% of voters opposed the Indigenous Voice, with all six states rejecting the proposal.

A ‘Yes’ vote would have amended Australia’s constitution to create an advisory body of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, to represent the views of Indigenous communities.

But in order to win, the referendum required at least four of the six states to vote in favour, along with a national majority.

Because of Australia’s time zones, voting in Western Australia was still under way as it became clear the referendum was lost.

Voice advocate Tanya Hosch, who spent a decade developing the model, told ABC: ‘On a personal level, I feel devastated.

‘There’s going to be a lot of pain and hurt and dismay and we’re going to need to take a moment to absorb that message and what it says.’

Another advocate, Tom Mayo, said he was also ‘devastated’ and blamed unfair attacks on the plan.

‘We have seen a disgusting “no” campaign. A campaign that has been dishonest, that has lied to the Australian people,’ Mr Mayo said.

Opinion polls in recent months indicated a strong majority of Australians opposed the proposal. Earlier in the year, a majority had supported it, before the no campaign gathered intensity.

Voice advocates had hoped that listening to indigenous views would lead to more effective delivery of government services and better outcomes for Indigenous lives.

Australia’s Indigenous citizens, who make up 3.8% of the country’s 26 million population, have inhabited the land for about 60,000 years but are not mentioned in the constitution and are, by most socio-economic measures, the most disadvantaged people in the country.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had championed the referendum and made it a key part of his government’s programme.

In a national address on Saturday night, the PM said his government remained committed to improving the lives of Aboriginal people and Torres Straight Islanders.

‘This moment of disagreement does not define us. And it will not divide us. We are not yes voters or no voters. We are all Australians,’ he said.

‘It is as Australians together that we must take our country beyond this debate without forgetting why we had it in the first place. Because too often in the life of our nation, and in the political conversation, the disadvantage confronting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has been relegated to the margins.’

‘This referendum and my government has put it right at the center.’

Support for the Yes vote was intially high, but gradually dwindled as conservative political parties lined up to denounce the proposal as lacking detail.

Opponents said the Voice would divide Australians along racial lines without reducing indigenous disadvantages. They also claimed it could be a first step towards indigenous claims for repatriation and compensation.

On Saturday, leading No campaigner Warren Mundine told ABC that the referendum should never have been called.

‘This is a referendum we should never had had because it was built on a lie that Aboriginal people do not have a voice,’ he told the broadcaster.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Peter Dutton accused Mr Albanese of needlessly creating racial division over a doomed referendum.

‘The Prime Minister was warned over the course of the last 16 or 17 months not to proceed with this divisive referendum and he owes the Australian public an apology for that,’ Mr Dutton said.

After months of campaigning, the No vote eventually gained momentum with slogans that appealed to voter apathy – ‘If you don’t know, vote No’ – and a host of other statements designed to instil fear into undecided voters.

Referendums are notoriously difficult to pass in Australia, with only 8 out of 44 succeeding since 1901.

More broadly, some experts believe the failure of the Yes outcome could deter future leaders from holding referendums altogether, as the bar for constitutional change is simply too high.

‘The drafters of the constitution said this is the rulebook and we’re only going to change it if the Australian people say they want to change it – we’re not going to leave it up to politicians,’Paula Gerber, professor of Law at Monash University, told CNN.

‘So that power, to change, to modernize, to update the constitution has been put in the hands of the Australian people. And if they are going to say every time, “If you don’t know, vote No,” then what politician is going to spend the time and money on a referendum that can be so easily defeated?’

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