Australia votes down ‘The Voice’ in contentious referendum

Australia has overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to recognise the country’s indigenous population in its constitution despite last-ditch efforts by the prime minister and aboriginal leaders, Report informs via the Financial Times.

The proposal, which would have also enshrined an advisory body on indigenous affairs called “The Voice” in the constitution, was pitched by Anthony Albanese, the Labor prime minister, as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the lives of the country’s original inhabitants.

The failure of the high-profile referendum, which was supported by some of Australia’s largest companies and institutions, represents a setback in the country’s attempts to deal with its past and present treatment of native people, who make up 3 per cent of the population.

High-income seats in inner Sydney and Melbourne, as well as polling stations in remote parts of the Northern Territory where some of the indigenous population resides, recorded the highest levels of support.

The referendum also required a majority in four of the country’s six states yet it failed that hurdle in all regions apart from the Australian Capital Territory, which comprises the capital city Canberra.

The decline in support for The Voice, which polled as high as 65 per cent last August, marks a significant blow to Albanese and his government. Close to 80 per cent of the seats Labor won at the 2022 election voted against the proposal, according to research company RedBridge Group.

Albanese said on Saturday night that Australia “must seek a new way forward with the same optimism” that launched the original proposal.

The Yes campaign failed to build broad support in the run-up to Australia’s first referendum since 1999, with the opposition Liberal and National parties both backing a No vote.

The proposal was criticised on a number of fronts, from a lack of detail about the structure of the advisory body, to whether it would divide the country along racial and ancestral lines. No Australian referendum has passed without bipartisan support.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, the opposition indigenous affairs spokesperson who has been the face of the No campaign in recent weeks, said she was proud that Australians had refused to back what she called a divisive referendum. “We are absolutely not a racist country,” she said of the public rejection of the Voice.

Linda Burney, the government’s indigenous Australians minister, said it was “a day of sadness” but that the campaign had at least highlighted the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australia. “This is not the end of reconciliation,” she said.