Josh Butler reports for The Guardian (14.10.23) on the defeat of the referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, with every state and territory bar the ACT voting against the proposition.
‘Australian voters have resoundingly rejected a proposal to enshrine an Indigenous voice to parliament in the country’s constitution, with voters in every state and territory bar the ACT opposing the change. The Australian Electoral Commission said 59% of the country voted no as of 10.30pm AEDT on Saturday. The state with the highest yes vote was Victoria, at 46%, while Queensland had the lowest yes vote, at 32%.
‘On Saturday night, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, called for Australians to show kindness to each other and defended his decision to push on with the referendum, calling himself a conviction politician.
‘“Just as the Uluru Statement from the Heart was an invitation extended with humility, grace and optimism for the future, tonight we must meet this result with the same grace and humility. And tomorrow we must seek a new way forward with the same optimism,” he told a press conference in Canberra as he conceded defeat. “Tonight is not the end of the road and is certainly not the end of our efforts to bring people together.”
‘… The Yes23 campaign director, Dean Parkin, said “we will be back”, vowing the campaign for reconciliation and recognition would return. But Prof Marcia Langton, an Indigenous academic and prominent yes campaigner feared the result meant reconciliation was “dead”.’
- Indigenous voice to parliament: Australia rejects constitutional change as Albanese says vote ‘not end of the road’
- View from The Hill: Anthony Albanese promises to continue to ‘advance reconciliation’ despite sweeping defeat of referendum
- Explainer: Australia has voted against an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. Here’s what happened
- Anthony Albanese calls for unity after Australians resoundingly vote down Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum
- Australians have rejected the Voice. What happens now?
- Queenslanders voted against the Voice to Parliament — more than any other state or territory in Australia
- The further you get from Australia’s cities, the more clearly the country said No
- The No victory in Voice to Parliament referendum reveals more than a divide between urban and regional Australia
- Booth by booth, Indigenous Australians backed the Voice
- Indigenous communities overwhelmingly voted yes to Australia’s voice to parliament
- Did Indigenous people want a Voice? The results from some of Australia’s most remote communities suggest many did
- How did the media perform on the Voice referendum? Let’s talk about truth-telling and impartiality
- The Voice campaign was infected with disinformation. Who’s in charge of inoculating Australians against lies?
- View from The Hill: There is a way forward to tackle Indigenous disadvantage after referendum defeat
- After a resounding No vote, Labor will move to shift political focus from an unsolved problem
- Cabinet to consider interim listening mechanism after resounding no vote on voice
- Torres Strait Islanders vow to keep striving for greater autonomy after unsuccessful Voice referendum
- Bruised ‘Yes’ campaigners blame ‘racism and Trumpian politics’ for referendum defeat
- Days after Voice vote, Peter Dutton waters down Indigenous recognition commitment
- Labor to speed up new anti-racism strategy amid voice and Israel-Hamas war tensions
- Yes supporters say voice referendum ‘unleashed a tsunami of racism’
- Overcrowding contributes to people dying young in Yarrabah. Residents hoped a Voice to Parliament would help
- The failure of Australia’s attempt to create an Indigenous Voice to Parliament
- Indigenous voices can be heard without being constitutionally enshrined, just look at the US
- After the Voice referendum: how far along are First Nations treaty negotiations across the country?
- First Nations people around the world weigh in on Australia’s referendum defeat
- Echoes of the Voice
- Getting the referendum wrong
- There was no plan B. So what’s next after the Voice referendum defeat?
- With the Voice referendum resoundingly defeated, will Australia ever again change the constitution?
- ANU research suggests referendum confined to Indigenous recognition might have passed
- Pat Dodson and other Indigenous politicians back focus on truth-telling after voice referendum failure
- What was the result in your state or electorate in the Voice referendum? Here are the results from each region
If there is to be any healing after the Voice referendum, it will be a long journey
Frank Bongiorno writes in The Conversation (15.10.23) about the path forward following the defeat of the Indigenous Voice referendum, reminding how difficult it is to achieve an ‘affirmative’ referendum result in Australia.
‘The result of the Voice referendum on Saturday was unexceptional if considered in light of the constitutional history of this country.
‘With a “yes”/“no” split likely to be about 40/60%, the defeat was no more or less resounding than several other proposals since Federation that became buried in contention, partisanship and opportunism. The “no” side’s clean sweep of the states has also occurred before – on a quarter of all referendum votes, in fact.
‘There will now be many a post-mortem, and many a “what if?” There will be an abundance of wisdom after the event. What if Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had offered bipartisan support? What if there had been a constitutional convention? What if the government had negotiated with the opposition over the detail? What if it had released a draft bill? What if the referendum were held next year? What if “yes” had run a different campaign? What if there had not been a cost-of-living crisis? What if there had been less lying?
‘…The “no” result will be deeply disappointing to many Australians, and most of all to those Indigenous people who have worked patiently for years to achieve constitutional change. There will be many broken hearts. These people have had to endure some of the very worst impulses at work in this country, and some of the nastiest instincts that disfigure its public life. That, too, is unexceptional in the history of this country. If there is to be any healing, it will be a long journey.’
- If there is to be any healing after the Voice referendum, it will be a long journey
- The failed referendum is a political disaster, but opportunity exists for those brave and willing to embrace it
- The political subjugation of First Nations peoples is no longer historical legacy
- Australian politics has reached a dead end
- Rejecting the voice shows Australia is still in denial, its history of forgetting a festering wrong
- Indigenous Australians grapple with ‘gut-wrenching’ result but pledge to ‘keep fighting’
- Indigenous Australians look to the future after Voice referendum defeat
- Albanese wanted to end two centuries of silence, but we said no – and failed our First Nations people
- A failure in slow motion: Albanese showed great courage but poor judgment
- The worst campaign of all time – why the Porsche and Lambo drivers never stood a chance
- The brutal truth of the referendum result was that Yes campaign couldn’t cut through to a hesitant electorate
- Voice referendum results point to shifting faultlines in Australian politics
- In the aftermath of the voice referendum, how can we unbork a polarised Australia? Here are three ways forward
- The referendum did not divide this country: it exposed it. Now the racism and ignorance must be urgently addressed
- Voice referendum results: If Australia denies racism, we don’t know ourselves
- Young First Nations voters say Voice referendum defeat will motivate positive change
- ‘Maybe I don’t have as many friends as I thought’: being Indigenous amid 85% no voters
- Rejected by the people who dispossessed and colonised them
- The resounding no vote shows the great Australian silence lives on in the bush
- Grattan on Friday: Anthony Albanese had good motives but his referendum has done much harm
- Australia has shown itself to be a selfish nation that lacks empathy
- Indigenous leaders break their silence, call referendum defeat ‘appalling and mean-spirited’
- Referendum defeat ‘embarrassing’ for Australia but Indigenous voice still needed, Thomas Mayo says
- Indigenous leaders may not propose new agenda to replace voice to parliament until next year
- The need for truth-telling is more urgent than ever if we are to change hearts and minds for future referendums
- Paul Keating says voice referendum was ‘wrong fight’ and has ‘ruined the game’ for a treaty
- There is no looking away: The brutal rejection of the Voice
- Australia was not big enough to vote for the voice, Stan Grant says
- Voice referendum failed because most voters believed it would create division
- Now is the time to act. The referendum must not lead to despair, but to a search for new ways to secure justice
- A statement for our people and our country