Australians in the UK vote Yes for Indigenous voice
A small informal exit poll conducted outside Australia House shows the Yes sentiment is strong among Aussies turning out to vote on the referendum.
A small informal exit poll conducted by The Australian outside Australia House shows the Yes sentiment is strong among Aussies turning out to vote on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament at the polling booth in the Australian embassy.
Of 16 people willing to reveal their voting choice, four indicated they were learning towards a no vote, and 12 were voting yes. Another six didn’t want to say. Most of the people queuing for the first day of pre-poll voting in the British capital were visitors to the United Kingdom and were among a large early turnout that caught queuing forficials by surprise. At one point the queue extended beyond the 200ms of barriers, with numbers expected to rise to around 20,000.
The Yes campaign has been highly visible in London, with activists holding placards outside the Ashes cricket matches and then hosting a launch in Camden with ex-prime minister Julia Gillard and a drag queen singing John Farnham’s song, You’re the Voice. The No campaign has been absent here, with not one poster advocating a No vote, but one person preparing to vote who was approached by The Australian on Tuesday, declined to give their name, but said “voting no is okay you know”.
The Australians who divulged their choice were from a variety of states, NSW, Victoria, the Northern Territory and Queensland and a wide range of ages from early 20’s to in their 80’s.
A common refrain supporting yes was “we need to get it done”, and “we have been ignoring the aboriginal people for too long”. Jenny from Sydney was wearing a “yes” badge.
No voters were concerned about the ramifications of constitutional change.
Doug from Victoria said “we don’t have enough information what what this is going to do and basically we don’t trust the government to do the right thing by Aboriginal people’’.
Jenny, also from Victoria said it “was absolutely unfair’’ to elevate one group of Australians above others in the constitution.
Officials are uncertain about the numbers which will attend because the last year’s Federal election was conducted under covid restrictions and there were many postal votes. But they believe this Saturday will be the busiest day because mid week there are train strikes preventing people outside of London to get to the capital.
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