The Voice Referendum live results: Australia votes No

PM Anthony Albanese Australia has said we need to find a new way forward with reconciliation, as Indigenous Yes campaigners and supporters announced they were in mourning after Australians overwhelmingly voted No to the Voice.  

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said from tomorrow, we “must seek a new way forward” after Australia voted No in the Voice referendum. 

 

“At the outset, I want to say that while tonight’s result is not one that I had hoped for, I absolutely respect the decision of the Australian people and the democratic process that has delivered it,” he said.

Speaking at Parliament House with Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney, Mr Albanese said he accepted the decision of the Australian people.

“My fellow Australians at the outset I want to say that while tonight's result is not one that I have hoped for, I absolutely respect the decision of the Australian people and the democratic process that has delivered it,” he said.

“I say to the millions of Australians all over our great country who voted Yes with hope and good will, the people who volunteered with such energy and enthusiasm … that just as the Uluru Statement from the Heart was an invitation extended with humility, grace and optimism for the future, tonight we must meet this result with the same … and tomorrow we must see a new way forward with the same optimism.”

“As Prime Minister I will always accept responsibility for the decisions I've taken and I do so tonight.”

"Tonight, I want to recognise that for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, this campaign has been a heavy weight to carry and this result will be very hard to bear."

Indigenous Australians who supported the Voice will hold a week of silence to grieve the referendum outcome and "reflect on its meaning and significance".

Australians overwhelmingly rejected the referendum to enshrine an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice in the constitution on Saturday, with the No case leading 54.96 per cent to 45.04 per cent with about half of the booths counted at 7.30pm AEDT.

Tasmania, NSW, Victoria and South Australia were all called for No by Sky News Australia before counting had even begun in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. The ACT was the only jurisdiction firmly voting Yes.

Sky News Chief Election Analyst Tom Connell said results in inner city electorates were not strong enough to make up for huge No votes in the regions. 

Yes23 board member Tanya Hosch said she was “devastated” by the result, but the campaign had always known a “prerequisite for success” would have been bipartisan support.

She said there was a “decade of very careful work” seeking to find a wording that would appease conservative politicians to no avail.

Prominent Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo directly accused Opposition leader Peter Dutton of being “dishonest” to the Australian people during the referendum.

“I really hope that when the analysis is done … that is exposed for all Australians to see,” he said.

No campaign spokesman Warren Mundine claimed he had been confident the No case could win “from day one” and said he had no regrets about how the campaign was handled.

He dismissed suggestions misinformation and lies had spread via the No side, declaring the "main campaign" was not responsible.

"I was pretty proud of the team and of our volunteers... there were some people on the edge of this that was a problem," he said.

“The reality is that we went and spoke to the migrant community and we knew what they were not happy about,” he told Sky News presenter Paul Murray.

“Some of them come from countries where they were second class citizens and they weren’t going to buy into this [Voice].”

“From our polling we knew that one of the biggest issues was that we wanted details.”

“There were a lot of people out there that wanted to vote yes but couldn’t because they didn’t have the details.”

Earlier in the evening, Yes23 campaign director Dean Parkin said the movement to meaningfully recognising First Nations people “will be back” regardless of the final result, noting the Yes side had turned out more than 80,000 volunteers on referendum day – the largest political movement in Australia’s history.

See the results as they come in for each state below:

 See how the nation has voted : 

See how it unfolded below:

Originally published as The Voice Referendum live results: Australia votes No

Updates