Heritage laws debacle fuelled voice referendum failure in WA

The referendum’s defeat had already been confirmed before the official Yes campaign’s Perth after-party opened its doors.

The Western Australian government’s disastrous introduction of its Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act has been blamed for propelling the state to an emphatic rejection of the Indigenous Voice to parliament.

The defeat of the referendum had already been confirmed well over an hour before polling centres in WA closed on Saturday and before an official post-vote after party by the Yes23 campaign in Perth had opened its doors.

As results from WA finally began to filter in, it quickly became clear that WA had joined all other states and the Northern Territory in strongly rejecting the constitutional amendment. Just over 40 per cent of counted votes in WA were for Yes.

WA’s new Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act came into force in July, just as debate about the Voice was heating up, and the new state-based laws immediately attracted a fierce backlash from across the community amid fears that it would significantly inhibit the rights of landowners. After less than a month, Premier Roger Cook announced that the act would be repealed.

Polling since then had consistently shown that support for the Voice was lower in WA than in any other state.

While Labor and the Yes campaign had repeatedly attempted to dismiss any links between the ACHA and the Voice, Teal independent Kate Chaney told The Australian that the controversy around the heritage laws had clearly had an impact on Voice support in the state.

“Just at the last booth I was at, a woman was talking about the Cultural Heritage Act and that being her reason for voting No,” she said.

“It has had an impact, and it‘s very unfortunate timing.”

The most senior Federal Liberal in WA, legal affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash, on Saturday morning said the controversy over the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act should prompt the state’s Labor government to pause any plan to introduce a state-based Voice.

“The reason the Labor government had to scrap those laws is because the people of Western Australia, in particular our farmers and landowners, stood up and said, ‘my land, hands off Mr Cook’,” she said.

“If a No vote does get up tonight, and it gets up in Western Australia, I would say to the state Labor government here, respect the vote of the Western Australian people.”

WA opposition leader Shane Love said the referendum’s failure was to blame on both the proposed model and issues around the heritage act.

“The Albanese Voice was a proposed solution which failed to address a very real problem,” he said.

“However, these issues have not been helped by the Cook Labor Government’s decisions to reduce regional representation in State Parliament, or the botched implementation of the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act and its ongoing fallout.”

WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam originally came out in support of the Voice but reversed her position in the wake of the cultural heritage debacle.

On Saturday night, she said the botched act had clearly impacted on the result.

“There is no doubt that the Cook government’s shambolic Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act has had an impact on the vote or support for the voice in WA,” she said.

“The chaos created by the Cook Labor government’s botched rollout of this act and the lack of details provided created real doubt and mistrust about how their federal Labor colleagues would implement the voice.”

FULL VOTE RESULTS

In a statement on Saturday night, Mr Cook said the nation had spoken and it was the job of leaders to listen.

“I know it has been a challenging campaign for many Indigenous Western Australians. But tomorrow, we move forward,” he said.

“The Government I lead will continue our important work towards reconciliation, and closing the gap with our First Nations peoples.”