The Voice was rejected by Australians. The referendum that had the objective to give more rights and constitutional recognition to Aboriginal people was rejected: 59% of electors voted against the proposal in the October 14 vote. The Voice would have become a parliamentary body comprising Indigenous representatives from each of Australia’s six states. This would allow Aboriginal people to make legislative proposals on issues that directly affect them.
It’s a defeat for Australia’s Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, given that he himself committed to proposing a referendum with the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart, in which natives called for constitutional reform and the creation of a deliberative body.
“The Uluru Statement was a call made with humility, grace, and optimism for the future,” Albanese explained to Sydney Morning Herald. “Tonight we must face this outcome with the same grace and humility.” The Prime Minister also reaffirmed his commitment to letting Australians decide for themselves whether to endorse The Voice: “We kept our promise and did our best. We supported this change not out of expediency, but out of a belief that this is what people deserve from their government. We are not ‘yes’ or ‘no’ voters, we are all Australians. And it is up to us, Australians, to move our country together beyond this debate, without forgetting why we got it in the first place.”
Australia, compared to other British colonies, lags far behind, when it comes to Indigenous rights, and this referendum took place 235 years after British settlement and 56 years after the granting of voting rights, which only occurred in 1967.
The Voice supporters complain that the voting campaign was carried out incorrectly, and in any case, not all aboriginal movements were included in the front. The Black Sovereign Movement (BSM) of former Green senator Lidia Thorpe argued that reform was not enough and called for full sovereignty for the indigenous minority.