Voice referendum results as it happened: Australia rejects constitutional change; Price questions AEC conduct

That’s it for our live coverage following the defeat of the Voice to parliament referendum, thank you for reading along.

Here are some of the key highlights following yesterday’s vote - the first referendum in 24 years.

• Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the government remains committed to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, but there were no plans yet on Treaty or Truth following the defeat of the Indigenous Voice to parliament.
• Government ministers say they are disappointed but will accept the result. Both Health Minister Mark Butler and Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the government is committed to closing the gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and non-Indigenous health outcomes and life expectancies.
• Leading No campaigner Nyunggai Warren Mundine and shadow attorney general Michaelia Cash called for an audit of Indigenous spending programs.
• Independent senator and progressive No vote campaigner Lidia Thorpe and Greens Leader Adam Bandt said Indigenous Australians need a Truth and Justice Commission now the referendum has failed.
• Overnight, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price appeared to question the behaviour Australian Electoral Commission in the Northern Territory
• While journalists were attending a press conference in Brisbane, across town, billionaire businesswoman and mining magnate Gina Rinehart was whisked into the official No campaign event.

It was clear within 90 minutes of the first polling booths closing on the east coast that the Voice referendum had been defeated, after a majority in three states voted No.

So what does it mean?

Anthony Albanese is badly damaged by the defeat, while Peter Dutton gains heightened authority.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

The referendum was the first commitment Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made following last year’s election victory.

Chief political correspondent David Crowe writes that the Prime Minister has been damaged by the defeat, while opposition leader Peter Dutton has gained the hope that No success can propel him to victory in the next election.

Political and international editor Peter Hartcher says Australians should probably feel a little bit embarrassed, because we allowed politics to erode Australians’ inherent goodwill.

While the majority of the country voted No in the referendum, the vote changed depending on whether people were in the inner city or outer suburbs.

In Sydney, as Matt Wade reports, the city was split into three. Electorates around the harbour and CBD embraced the Voice, while the city’s inner ring was ambivalent. Outer suburbs were a hard No.

Inner city Melburnians strongly supported the voice - Greens Leader Adam Bandt’s electorate of Melbourne voted 78 per cent in favour of the referendum on Saturday - but 55 per cent of the state as a whole voted No.

Queensland returned the strongest No vote of any state. As Matt Dennien reports, seven of the 10 highest No-voting federal electorates were in the sunshine state.

Only three Queensland electorates seem poised to register majority yes votes –the Greens-held Brisbane city electorates of Brisbane, Griffith and Ryan.

Even fewer electorates in Western Australia voted Yes, Hamish Hastie reports.

Labor MP Patrick Gorman’s electorate of Perth and independent teal MP Kate Chaney’s seat of Curtin posted Yes majorities of 56 and 51 per cent respectively. The remaining 13 federal electorates voted No.

Throughout the official six week referendum campaign and in the months leading up to it, several key figures wielded the most influence, as David Crowe reports.

No campaigners including senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Nyunggai Warren Mundine were some of the most persuasive players in the public debate, seen positively by 26 per cent and 22 per cent of Australians respectively and holding more appeal among voters than many on the Yes side.

Key figures in the Voice debate (l-r) Noel Pearson, Linda Burney, Anthony Albanese, Peter Dutton, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Nyunggai Warren Mundine.Credit: Fairfax

While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had a positive rating of 35 per cent in an exclusive survey leading up to Saturday’s referendum – at which 60 per cent of Australians and clear majorities in all states rejected the Voice – other key figures in the Yes campaign had not gained similar influence.

See the full breakdown of who wielded the most influence in our chief political correspondent’s story here.

The Aboriginal flag will be lowered to half-mast at Sydney Town Hall, after another Sydney council has said it will honour a request made by Indigenous Voice supporters last night.

We reported earlier that Inner West Council, an area of strong Yes support, would lower the Aboriginal flags on its town halls for a week of silence to grieve the outcome of the referendum.

The City of Sydney has also said it will lower the Aboriginal flags at both Sydney Town Hall and Redfern Town Hall, starting tomorrow.

The Aboriginal flag on the Harbour Bridge will not be flown at half mast, per Commonwealth protocols.Credit: Dylan Coker

A City of Sydney spokesperson said:

“From tomorrow to Sunday, we will be lowering the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags to half-mast at Sydney Town Hall and Redfern Community Centre, in response to requests from the Indigenous community.”

But the Aboriginal flag on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and other places managed by the state government will stay flying high. A source in the NSW government indicated it respected the decision of voters and would follow Commonwealth protocols.

The No vote in NSW overall is 59 per cent.

Last night NSW Premier Chris Minns said it was important to respect the decision of voters.

“I am fully committed to ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s voices are heard in NSW,” he said in a statement on social media.

“That means listening and delivering better outcomes. Not just words - actions. That’s what we’ll deliver.”

The outcome of the referendum became clear less than 90 minutes after the first booths closed on Saturday night, but the work is not over for the more than 100,000 Australian Electoral Commission staff who have been busily tallying results.

In coming days, AEC workers will continue to count postal votes as they come in, including those cast interstate and from overseas.

After that, all the votes will be counted for a second time. The AEC said that’s a mandatory count, and is a standard process for all electoral events.

One of the claims made by No proponents in the run-up to the referendum was that there was a lack of support among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Proponents had claimed very high support, with Yes supporters using advertisements on election day arguing there was 80 per cent support among Indigenous voters.

So what actually happened?

Alfred Murdoch casts his vote at the Cherbourg voting centre in the Queensland seat of Wide Bay. It was one of just three booths in the seat to vote Yes.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Well, the results from Saturday’s referendum shows that in those areas with a large proportion of Indigenous residents, the Yes vote did much better than most other booths in the country.

The community of Palm Island, which sits in the Queensland electorate of Herbert and is 91 per cent Indigenous had a Yes vote of 75.1 per cent, compared to the overall Herbert vote of just 24 per cent for Yes.

In the Gulf of Carpentaria, Mornington Island has an Indigenous population of more than 80 per cent. It delivered one of the highest Yes votes in Queensland at almost 78 per cent. It sits in the electorate of Kennedy, which had an overall Yes vote of 20 per cent.

Read the full analysis of majority Indigenous booths here.

Australia’s decision to vote against enshrining an Indigenous Voice to parliament in the Constitution made headlines around the world, as Europe correspondent Rob Harris reports.

In the UK, The BBC reported Australia had overwhelmingly rejected a plan to give greater rights to Indigenous people in an “often acrid campaign”, and The Times said it was a “a huge blow” for those who viewed the Voice as a unique opportunity to close the yawning gap that remains between Australia’s indigenous people and the rest of the population.

How the world reported on The VoiceCredit: Aresna Villanueva

In France, Le Monde said Indigenous Australians had expressed anger and anguish that the white majority had rejected calls for “a reckoning with the country’s bloody colonial past” while Germany’s state-owned international broadcaster Deutsche Welle described the result as a “major setback to the country’s efforts for reconciliation with its First Peoples”.

Al Jazeera, the Qatari-owned 24-hour English-language news channel, said the result may also have implications for misinformation in Australia.

Read more on how the world covered the referendum here.

Former prime minister Julia Gillard said the Voice defeat was a “moment of reflection” for Australia, but there was still hope for a better future.

“While the referendum result is not the one I had hoped for, I remain hopeful that all Australians want to heal divisions and create a better future together,” she said in a statement on social media.

“As we emerge from this chapter in our nation’s story, we must maintain hope that a better future is possible. This was not our only chance at healing.”

Gillard, who is the chair of mental health awareness body Beyond Blue, said the referendum result would be distressing, particularly for many First Nations people, and support was available both through her organisation and from 13 YARN for crisis support from Indigenous counsellors.

While the majority of the country voted against the Voice to parliament, the Yes and No vote varied across the country, and between polling booths.

The highest Yes vote was in a booth in Adam Bandt’s electorate of Melbourne, while the highest No vote came from a booth in Barnaby Joyce’s north-western NSW electorate of New England.

See how the booth you went to voted in our interactive here.