Analysis: SA deals decisive blow to Voice to Parliament campaign | Paul Starick
Peter Malinauskas’ task of implementing a legislated Voice to state parliament has been complicated by the scale of result, writes Paul Starick.
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South Australia scuttled the Voice referendum in less than an hour after polls closed by becoming the decisive third state to reject the proposal for constitutional change.
The landslide result exposed a deep divide between the Yes-supporting affluent inner city and the outer suburbs and regions, which drove the No result.
The emphatic rejection of a Voice to Parliament casts doubt over the future of the state-based body, which was legislated in March.
Premier Peter Malinauskas told the Sunday Mail that “our democracy has now decided against (the) model” of a “constitutionally enshrined First Nations Voice”.
His concession complicates his task of implementing the state-based Voice, given the overwhelming repudiation of the model across the nation.
Having turned away from a Voice in droves, South Australians are unlikely to accept Mr Malinauskas splitting hairs over whether it is in a constitution or not.
With 55 per cent of the vote counted in SA, No was ahead 62.7 per cent to 37.3 per cent.
The Yes vote was ahead in only one of SA’s 10 federal seats, Adelaide, with a razor-thin margin of 51.7 per cent to 48.3 per cent.
Mr Malinauskas, who did not attend a Yes campaign event on Saturday night, has already committed to holding elections in March for delegates to the state-based Voice.
But he told the Sunday Mail on Saturday night: “The Prime Minister honoured his commitment to put a constitutionally enshrined First Nations Voice to a vote in a referendum. Our democracy has now decided against that model – but the work at a federal level to close the gap on Indigenous disadvantage must continue.”
The state-based Voice was delayed by six months in June when Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kyam Maher said it was “creating confusion” and “being overshadowed” by the national debate.
Mr Malinauskas was a keynote speaker at the August 30 Elizabeth launch of the Yes campaign and, hours later in parliament, vowed state Labor would “be doing everything it possibly can to see to the delivery of a Yes vote”.
The Voice’s emphatic rejection in Adelaide’s suburbs, including in some crucial marginal state seats, means it turned off voters who swung support behind Labor’s landslide victory at last March’s state election.
Opposition Leader David Speirs, who in July announced the state Liberals would oppose the national Voice, said the decisive result was “particularly woeful in the suburbs and regions where people are struggling to pay their bills”.
He accused Mr Malinauskas of arrogantly creating a state-based Voice ahead of the referendum in a desperate bid to be first.
“South Australians have voted clearly against a Voice to Parliament and it’s now up to Peter Malinauskas to explain where to from here,” he said.
One Nation MLC Sarah Game said she would introduce a Bill to repeal the state Voice when parliament resumed this week.
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