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The referendum results indicate the “no” vote has won, and there will be no amendment to the Australian constitution to include a First Nations Voice to Parliament. As of 11pm this evening, the national figure sits at 59.7% no. The only jurisdiction projected to vote “yes,” Election Analyst Adrian Beaumont reports, is the ACT.
As Michelle Grattan writes tonight, this definitive result was predicted. She writes that the result is a major rebuff for Albanese, and “more important, a devastating blow for the many Indigenous Australians who had invested their hopes in what was always – given the history of referendums – a long shot”.
For many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, this has been an unnecessarily painful event, riddled with misinformation, disinformation, racism and lateral violence. But as Euahlayi academic Bhiamie Williamson reminds us tonight, “Motivations driving individual voting preferences are complicated, contested, perhaps even contradictory.”
“We must take stock of this political disaster and consider where it leaves us as a nation and a society of people and in what direction we walk from here.”
As political theorist and Torres Strait Islander Sana Nakata writes tonight,“The political subjugation and further marginalisation of First Nations’ peoples is no longer historical legacy but a contemporary decision reinscribing centuries of paternalism: that we are not peoples deserving of a protected right to be heard on matters that affect us.”
Although a majority of this country has decided Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should not have a Voice, Sana highlights the political journey of First Nations people, of which this referendum defeat is only a small part. Sana writes of “…petitions to kings and queens, petitions to governors requesting land grants, demands for freedom, for autonomy over reserve areas, to demands for representation in the parliament, labour strikes, and calls for treaty and land rights.” As Sana highlights, First Nations people are no stranger to knock-backs, or to being told “no”, but as we’ve always done, we’ll find another way.
Also tonight, New Zealand voted decisively for change, ousting the Labour government and opting for a likely coalition between the centre-right National Party and its ally ACT, ending an era begun by Jacinda Ardern that saw her win an unprecedented single-party majority just three years ago.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
The result was definitive, a major rebuff for Anthony Albanese and, more important, for the many Indigenous Australians who had put their hopes in what was always a long shot.
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Matt Garrow, The Conversation
The latest results for the Voice to Parliament Referendum are showing a “no” majority nationally and among the states.
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Adrian Beaumont, The University of Melbourne
Our election analyst lays out the current projections across the nation.
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Sana Nakata, James Cook University
The ‘no’ vote defeating the referendum is just one part of a long political journey for First Nations people. What went wrong for the ‘yes’ campaign, and where does Australia go from here?
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Bhiamie Williamson, Monash University
The Voice to Parliament has failed. What does this mean for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people?
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Veronika Meduna, The Conversation; Finlay Macdonald, The Conversation; Debrin Foxcroft, The Conversation; Matt Garrow, The Conversation
New Zealand has swung decisively back to the right at the 2023 general election. With official results pending, it seems National and ACT can still form a government without the help of NZ First.
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