Voice referendum polling booths and coverage for Wide Bay Burnett

‘Yes’ and ’no’ campaigners found the wrong woman to target in the Wide Bay as a 78-year-old summed up the frustration of many. VIDEO, UPDATES.

Decision day is here, and we have you covered with all the updates you need to keep up with the latest events as the day unfolds.

You can follow live results as they come in here.

Councillor slams ‘shameful’ history

Wearing a ‘yes’ shirt and describing the nation’s history back to settlement as “shameful” Bundaberg Regional Councillor Vince Habermann said Indigenous people were classified as “fauna” rather than ”human beings” until the 60s.

He said this was a “blight on our past” and to him, today’s vote was “just another step to give them a voice in parliament”.

He said he believed most had made up their minds but he was handing out at the Bundaberg North State High School booth in support of the ‘yes’ side and hopeful of still swaying a few who were undecided.

‘That doesn’t tell me anything!’ 78yro voter’s spray

Isabel Long hadn’t yet decided which way she was going to vote before arriving at the Norville State School polling place this morning but she was quick to express her feelings when she found herself stuck in the middle of a campaigner clash.

“I don’t know enough about it,” she said.

“You can’t really vote on something you don’t know enough about.”

Ms Long, 78, didn’t find the information cards provided by the ‘no’ campaigners, the first group she encountered when walking onto the school grounds, to be much help.

“That doesn’t tell me anything!,” she said to one of the ‘no’ campaigners.

“I’m just going to vote no, I don’t understand it.”

“Well, if you don’t know you should vote ‘no’,” the campaigner agreed.

As she moved towards the polling booths, some ‘yes’ campaigners including Gooreng Gooreng Elder Aunty Julie Appo asked Ms Long if she’d like to know more about the referendum.

Undecided voter Isabel Long made up her mind in the polling booth on Saturday.

“We’re asking to be recognised in the constitution,” Ms Appo said.

“But I don’t understand why you haven’t been,” Ms Long replied

“Well, we’re not,” Ms Appo said.

“We just want to be acknowledged as First Nations people,” said another Gooreng Gooreng woman, Denise Johnston-Fines.

“Well I don’t blame you,” said Ms Long, moving towards the booths.

“We weren’t here first, you were.”

As she was leaving the school after casting her vote, Ms Long said her interaction with the campaigners didn’t help with making up her mind.

“You can vote, but you don’t know whether they’ll carry out what you’re asking them to do,” she said.

“Politicians are great flaming liars.”

Nevertheless, she found the decision easy in the end upon reading the proposition on the ballot paper.

“The question said it was ‘to recognise the First Peoples of Australia’,” she said.

“So I said ‘yes’, because they were here before us.”

Having exercised her democratic rights and obligations, Ms Long was going to head home, maybe for a feed.

“So that’s done,” she said.

“I’m going to go home and have something to eat or whatever.”

Gooreng Gooreng Elder reflects on ‘vindictive’ campaign

Yes campaigner and Gooreng Gooreng Elder Aunty Julie Appo said she was “hopeful” of a positive result in the Voice referendum after an at times “vindictive” campaign.

“I feel a sense of relief because we are finally here, and we are getting a far better response than what we thought,” she said.

Gooreng Gooreng women Aunty Julie Appo and Denise Johnston-Fines said they were happily surprised by the numbers of people indicating they would be voting in support of the Voice proposal.

Aunty Julie and another Gooreng Gooreng woman, Denise Johnston-Fines, said they had been given the “thumbs-up” by many voters as they walked into the Norville State School polling place, estimating the numbers at around 50-50 for and against the Voice proposal.

While relieved that the campaign is coming to an end, Aunty Julie is concerned about the way ahead if the Voice proposal isn’t supported at the referendum

“(The campaign) was quite vindictive at first, it was terrible,” Aunty Julie said.

“But people, with a little bit more information, have been able to make a better decision on what they want to do.

“The anger that we experienced so much seems to have gone, or it hasn’t really gone it’s just that we’re coming across a different group of people.

“My concern is, with the polling figures reflecting the Yes vote is going down, then it’s going to be very hard to know what to do for the future when we have got so many people against us.”

No queues at Gympie polling booths

With many voters planning ahead and pre-polling prior to Saturday, there were no lines at polling places around Gympie.

Witnesses observed No campaigners offering pens to voters as they entered the polling place.

The AEC has rubbished conspiracy theories doing the rounds among No campaigners that officials will erase any No votes written in pencil.

There were no lines at the polling booth at Southside State Primary School in Gympie.

‘Haven’t been listening to it’: Young voter glad the referendum is drawing to a close

Kateisha Wright is one of the 1.8 million young Australians voting in their first referendum.

Ms Wright, 20, said she hadn’t paid much attention to the public debate that had become ubiquitous on social media in the past few months.

“You see it being posted everywhere,” she said after leaving the polling place at Bundaberg North State High School.

“People yell out and scream, fight about it. I just haven’t been listening to it.”

Kateisha Wright said she hasn't been listening to the public debate leading into the referendum, and is glad it is drawing to a conclusion.

While she had friends, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, who “want to go both ways”, Ms Wright made up her own mind.

“I just did what I felt was best,” she said, without revealing how she voted.

“You can’t really let other people pull you towards something you don’t want. It’s up to everyone on their own.”

Most of all, Ms Wright was glad that the referendum is drawing to a conclusion.

“It’s good I won’t have to worry about it anymore,” she said.

“I don’t have to remember the date I’ve got to be here, and I can go back to work; I had to take today off to do this.

“It will end up how it ends up, we’ll just have to work with whatever ends up happening.”

Catch up on our top Voice stories below:

Voice 2023: What are the issues for undecided Aussie voters

How Wide Bay’s most influential will vote on Voice

Kerry O’Brien speaks at Hervey Bay on Voice to Parliament

Cherbourg youth use their voice to overcome generational trauma

False claims from Bundaberg Voice event aired on national radio