It is 7.30 pm and the polls closed an hour ago, the ABC has said that three states (NSW, Tasmania, SA) have voted “No” to the referendum to change the Constitution to include an Aboriginal Voice to Parliament.
As four out of the six states need to approve the change the referendum cannot pass so the results from Victoria, Qld and WA are irrelevant.
Were you surprised by the apparent outcome Bruce?
It’s democracy in action I suppose.But when I see the racist right wing thugs like Dutton,Hanson and Abbott are happy with the result I don’t feel good about it.
it was just a try out for the real thing - it will work fine next time!!
It looks clear that the national vote was about 60:40 to the “No” case.
It has thrown up some interesting political questions.
The Liberals opposed the referendum yet their ex safe seats, now owned by the conservative Teal Independents, in Liberal heartland voted overwhelmingly “Yes” whereas Labor heartland in western Sydney and Melbourne overwhelmingly voted “No”.
The results are remarkably similar to the 1999 Republic referendum with the ACT the only state or territory voting “Yes”.
Already the Aboriginal “No” case leaders are calling for a treaty.
And NT rejecting it was a surprise to me.But their senator Price didn’t seem to like rural Aboriginal problems being sorted out by we know what’s best for them city dwellers.
Interested to see that Evonne Goolagong Cawley involved in pushing for yes vote. I remember her winning Wimbledon in 70’s. Does this mean she was winning these matches for her country but had no right to vote in the elections for a leader?
No, it doesn’t mean that at all. Aboriginal people had the right to vote in the 1940s but it wasn’t until about 1983 that it became compulsory for Aboriginal people to vote (same as the rest of the population) so in the 1970s aboriginal people had the right to vote
The referendum held in 1967 gave Aboriginal people citizenship and took responsibility for them away from the state governments.
The 1967 Refendum removed the highlighted words from section 51 of the Constitution
The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to:
The people of any race, other than the aboriginal race in any State, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws;
and removed section 127 entirely:
In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted.
There is still the provision in the Constitution to make laws about people of a specific race
This current referendum had nothing to do with voting rights at all.
This explanation just popped up in my YouTube feed analysing the result. It appears unlikely that there will be a major change in the votes uncounted. I thought it was really interesting how the voting patterns broke down by age, gender, education etc, especially the comparison with the Republic referendum.
