40,000 Wide Bay Burnett voters vote early on referendum

Six days out from the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum, 40,000 voters across the Wide Bay and Burnett have braved early crowds to have their say.

There was no shortage of people eager to have their say early on the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament with tens of thousands of votes already cast with the referendum still one week away, including more than 5000 at Gympie’s early votin booth.

Family and holidays are among the reasons tens of thousands of Wide Bay Burnett voters turned out early to have their say on the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Five days out from the official referendum date on Saturday, October 14, more than 40,000 Wide Bay Burnett residents had already voted at early polling booths.

The booths opened on Tuesday, October 3, 2023.

The referendum asks the public whether they support enshrining a Voice to Parliament body within the Constitution.

By Monday night, Hervey Bay had had the largest turnout of the Wide Bay’s cities with 12,601 casting their vote in the first week.

This was only 150 shy of besting the early turnout across the Bundaberg region, including Bargara and Childers, which was 14,164.

More than 1000 people a day have been voting at Gympie’s referendum pre-poll booth at the Hockey Centre on the Southside.

More than 8000 of these voted in Bundaberg itself.

Another 3032 turned out at Bargara’s early voting booth and 1595 lined up at Childers.

Towards the Wide Bay’s south there were 5379 early votes cast at Maryborough, and 5310 in Gympie.

In the South Burnett there were 3168 votes lodged at Kingaroy in the first week.

It equates to an average of 8124 people voting early each day since the polls opened.

The early turnouts continued Monday, with array of reasons on offer as to why people were at the polls early.

Voters at Gympie on Monday, who declined to be named, said medical reasons, family reasons, or simply because they would be away on Saturday were the driving forces behind their decision to head out early.

One campaigner for the “Yes” vote said there were “a lot coming through” about school time.

Ongoing questions about how to vote - the ballot requires only a “yes” or “no answer, with news a tick would be accepted as a “yes” being slammed as “favouritism” - did not seem to be having much impact on most voters, he said.

“A lot of people are bemused and a bit annoyed that somebody’s got to tell them how to write ‘yes’ or ‘no’,” he said.

Find out where you can vote in the Wide Bay Burnett here.