This was published 10 months ago
This is how West Australians voted in the Voice referendum
Just two federal electorates of Western Australia’s 15 voted in a majority yes at Saturday’s Voice referendum, following a national trend of increased proportion of Yes voters the closer a polling booth was to a national capital CBD.
At 63.5 per cent, WA’s total no percentage was ahead of the national vote of 60 per cent and was the third highest in the country after South Australia (64.5 per cent) and Queensland (68.6 per cent).
Broken down by federal electorate it was only Labor MP Patrick Gorman’s electorate of Perth and independent teal MP Kate Chaney’s seat of Curtin that posted Yes majorities of 56 and 51 per cent respectively.
While it appeared early on Saturday night Labor MP Josh Wilson’s Fremantle would join Curtin and Perth as another Yes electorate a surge in No votes at booths outside the port city eventually turned the tides, leaving it with a 53.3 per cent No majority.
At a booth level, Fremantle recorded the top four highest metropolitan rates of Yes votes.
Fremantle South, Fremantle East, White Gum Valley and Hilton booths all returned Yes majorities in the mid-70s.
Like other states the Yes vote collapsed the further away from the city you were.
Liberal MP Andrew Hastie’s outer metro/regional mash-up electorate of Canning recorded the biggest no vote in the state at 76.9 per cent.
The massive Liberal-held regional and remote electorates of Durack and O’Connor recorded no votes of 73 and 76 per cent respectively.
However, it was in these electorates in communities with high numbers of Indigenous residents that recorded some of the highest levels of support for the Voice at an individual booth level.
The Wheatbelt town of Koorda took the top spot for Yes majority with 87 per cent of voters supporting it while Cunderdin also recorded 85 per cent support.
The Fitzroy Crossing booth in the Kimberley recorded an 80 per cent Yes majority while Leonora in the Goldfields recorded a 79 per cent Yes majority.