The Voice: Your questions answered

It’s dominated the headlines all year, but many Aussies are only now starting to pay attention to The Voice debate. For those who came in late, here are the essentials to know.

The Voice referendum has dominated politics, the media and pub talk throughout 2023, but the latest polls show as many as one in six Australians still don’t know how they plan to vote.

The Roy Morgan poll published on Thursday showed 46 per cent of respondents said they intended to vote ‘No’, 37 per cent said they would vote ‘Yes’ but 17 per cent – nearly one in six Aussies – were undecided.

There are many reasons for that – people lead their own lives, and some don’t read the papers or watch TV, and many are still considering the issues.

If you’re still in that undecided cohort, here are some of the essentials you should know about the Voice.

WHAT ARE WE BEING ASKED TO DO?

On Saturday October 14 all Australians aged over 18 on the electoral roll are required to vote on the same question – whether the Constitution should be altered to “recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice”.

WHY DO WE HAVE TO VOTE ON THIS?

In Australia, voting is compulsory for everyone on the electoral roll. The Constitution can only be changed by a vote of the people; a government can’t change it. People who don’t vote may be fined $20.

Early voters at the Brisbane City Hall. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

The government could have created a Voice to Parliament just by making a law to establish one, but laws can be overturned when governments change. A change to the constitution can only be changed by a referendum, and the proponents of the Voice say it needs to be a permanent fixture of our democracy. Others contend that a “legislated” Voice – one set up by an Act of Parliament rather than a constitutional change – carries less risk.

WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR THE VOICE COME FROM?

In 2017, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders from all around the country converged on Uluru to discuss the continuing areas of Indigenous disadvantage in Australian life, and constitutional reforms that could address these problems.

They released a short joint statement, called the Uluru Statement from the Heart, containing three proposals, summarised as Voice, Treaty and Truth.

Where it all started. A meeting of indigenous leaders in central Australia in 2019 produced the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Picture: Kate Dinning/iStock

A longer 26-page document was also prepared at that Uluru meeting, which has prompted some contention: the First Nations leaders say the Uluru Statement is one page, whereas critics say the longer document lays out a broader agenda of grievances, and should have been more widely scrutinised.

The Statement plainly states what the leaders called “the torment of our powerlessness”.

In the statement, the leaders called for a Voice to Parliament comprised of indigenous representatives, who would advise the government and parliament on how laws and policies affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The call for a Treaty refers to the fact that no formal deal was ever agreed to between Australia’s indigenous inhabitants and the first white colonisers: the British simply moved in, guided by the false notion that Australia was “terra nullius” – Latin for “nobody’s land”.

The Truth part of the Uluru Statement refers to a proposal for a Makaratta Commission, an independent body which would uncover the full extent of past injustices experienced by Australia’s First Nations people. The Makaratta Commission would “supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history,” according to the statement.

On election night in May 2022, the newly elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese committed to a referendum on the Voice during his victory speech.

WHAT WOULD THE VOICE LOOK LIKE?

The size and composition of the Voice is yet to be determined, and this is a sticking point for some critics, who want to know full details of what they are being asked to vote for before they give it their support. Others point out the referendum is about the concept of the Voice only, rather than a full design.

Indigenous leader Noel Pearson was one of the authors of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and is a leading Yes campaigner. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Nyunggai Warren Mundine, one of the leading proponents for the No case . Picture: NCA NewsWIRE/John Gass

One thing that has been established is that the Voice would be advisory only: it would not have the power to make changes itself, or to run its own programs.

If the Yes case is successful in the referendum, the government will consult on the specifics, like how many members it will have (although gender parity has already been established as a key feature), how often it would meet, when and where. Once it has settled on a model, it will put it to the parliament for a vote.

On Q&A recently Yes campaigner Noel Pearson said the parliament might, for example, opt for 24 members of the Voice, but future governments could reduce it to 18, or increase it to 32.

“Those details can always change subject to the parliament’s actions in creating laws,” he said.

WHAT WOULD THE VOICE DEAL WITH?

Australia's Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney. Picture: William West/AFP

Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians, Senator for the Northern Territory Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has been a leading proponent for the No Campaign. Picture: NCA NewsWIRE/ Morgan Sette

Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney said if a Voice to Parliament is established, the priorities she would set on day one would be to look at the areas of health, education, jobs and housing. But others have pointed out that there would be nothing to stop the Voice from providing advice on a range of other issues, even controversial topics like Australia Day, or how Indigenous issues might get taught in schools.

It should be pointed out that even if the Voice does make suggestions to parliament on those issues, it doesn’t have a veto power, and it would still be the parliament that would vote on them.

It has also been suggested the advice from the Voice could create new legal headaches for the High Court, if the Voice recommended one thing, but the parliament or executive government acted against that recommendation. Legal experts have argued that challenges to decisions made by parliament have little or no chance of success, but a decision made by a Minister could be subject to challenge if it is found that they did not consider the recommendation from the Voice. (Noting that “consider” does not mean the same thing as “follow”.)

HOW DO I VOTE?

Yes and No campaigners hand out leaflets as members of the public vote at Brisbane City Hall on the first day of early voting for the referendum. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Hundreds of early polling booths are already open around the country (see aec.gov.au for a list of locations).

Early voting is open to those who are travelling outside their usual electorate, or are working on the actual polling day, or restricted on the day for religious observances, or for a number of other reasons.

On the actual voting day, Saturday October 14, booths will open from 8am and close at 6pm. Once again, see aec.gov.au for full details of where to vote.

WHICH SIDE WILL WIN?

Most polls have been suggesting the No vote will be dominant, but we won’t really know until the count starts just after 6pm on October 14. For the Yes side to win, there are two requirements: firstly a majority of voters across Australia need to be in favour; but there also needs to be a majority of people voting that way in four out of the six states.

So you could have a situation where 51 per cent of Australians vote in favour of the Voice, but that percentage is only 49 per cent in three states, and the proposal would not succeed.

Getting a referendum successfully passed is difficult: of the 44 times Australians have voted on referendums since 1901, only eight have been successful.