Qld voters deliver strongest No vote in Voice referendum
Queensland voters rejected the proposed Voice to Parliament in strong numbers, delivering the strongest No vote in the country.
QLD Politics
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Queensland voters rejected the proposed Voice to Parliament in strong numbers, delivering the strongest No vote in the country.
Just three out of 30 Queensland electorates, all within Brisbane city, were on track to vote Yes in support of enshrining the Voice within the Constitution, while two were too close to call.
More than two-thirds of the state was on track to have voted No on Saturday night, compared to about 59 per cent of NSW, more than half of Victoria and about 60 per cent of Tasmania and Western Australia.
A predicated small swing back to the Yes campaign failed to eventuate.
Three safe Labor seats in Queensland – including Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ seat of Rankin, as well as Oxley and Blair – voted No.
Voters in the western Queensland seat of Maranoa delivered a significant 84 per cent vote against the Voice, the highest No vote in the state and country.
Flynn, Hinkler and Capricornia also had a No vote in excess of 80 per cent.
Greens-held seats of Brisbane, Ryan and Griffith all voted Yes. Labor’s Moreton in Brisbane’s south and Lilley in the city’s north were too close to call on Saturday night.
Yes campaigners heavily outnumbered No volunteers at many Brisbane voting booths, but it was not enough to change the result.
The state’s most senior Federal Labor MP Jim Chalmers accused parts of the No campaign and Peter Dutton of “negative and nasty politics”, while the Opposition Leader pointed the finger at Labor for running a divisive referendum. Prior to polls closing, a Labor figure said there were no expectations that the Yes vote would get up in Queensland but that they believed Mr Dutton had been hurt by his association with the No campaign as it “entrenched the view that he was a wrecker”.
Mr Dutton kept a low profile in the final days of the referendum and did not publicise his campaigning on the day.
But Coalition sources argued the Opposition Leader had “not put a foot wrong” during the campaign and his decision to support the No vote had been vindicated.
Newspoll on Saturday showed his approval ratings rose five points to 37 per cent, with a two-point fall in those dissatisfied with him to 50 per cent.
There was a last minute push from each side, including Fair Australia sending out text messages urging people to avoid a fine by getting to a polling booth and voting no.
Mr Chalmers said he acknowledged, understood and respected that the nation choose a different way forward.
“Our job now is not to dwell on this hurt or this disappointment, but to come together, and work together, to address it and heal it and close the gap,” he said.
Mr Dutton said the campaign and discussion around it should have been conducted in a respectful way, and accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of being divisive.
Nationals leader David Littleproud said that rather than creating a bigger bureaucracy through a Voice, there needed to be a better one.
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