KEY POINTS:
- Australians have delivered a resounding No to the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
- Early results show NSW, Queensland, SA, and Tasmania have voted No.
- Polls remain open in WA, where another No vote is expected.
Indigenous advocate Marcia Langton has declared "Reconciliation is dead" after Australians soundly rejected an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, before polls even closed in Western Australia.
Months of dire signs for the Yes camp translated into reality on Saturday, with NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia voting No.
Every state voted No, as did the NT, leaving the ACT as the only jurisdiction to back the Voice.
As of 10am on Sunday, the overall No vote stood above 60 per cent. To have passed, the referendum would have required an overall majority and a majority in at least four states.
Speaking to NITV's The Point, Langton - a Yiman and Bidjara woman and member of the referendum working group - said Reconciliation had been continually "kicked down the road ... [and] been an emollient for what is basically political contempt for us".
Australians have resoundingly rejected the Voice, with at least four states expected to have voted No. Credit: Mark Evans/Getty Images
"I think the No campaigners have a lot to answer for. In poisoning Australia against this proposition and against Indigenous Australia. They say they're not celebrating, but let's see how they wheel themselves out in the future. Because this has been a cynical political exercise by the Coalition ... They'll now be pressing hard for policies that cause us harm."
Nyunggai Warren Mundine says there will be no celebrations in the victorious camp. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
Mundine insisted there would be "no celebrations" in the victorious camp.
"The reality is, the Australian public have told us what they want, they don't want a Voice," he said.
"They want the government and other people to get out there and actually do the job that needs to be done. We need to look at the billions of dollars that have been spent, and not got the outcomes that we need. We need to do a performance audit of this."
Nova Peris says the result has left her 'feeling sick'. Source: AAP / Darren England
"This country, it's almost like it fears change and it's not even about change, it's about the truth and it's about something that should have happened 122 years ago," she told NITV's The Point.
"It's a really sad indictment. As an educated Aboriginal person who has travelled the world through my sports and education, we can wake up and I have a life that I can live. But the disadvantage of our people, the suffering in the lucky country, 2023, it is disgusting."
At least four states reject Voice, WA expected to follow suit
With the vast majority of polling places counted, Queensland delivered a No vote nudging 65 per cent, closely followed by SA, where it was 62 per cent.
In NSW, the country's largest state, over 57 per cent of voters rejected the Voice. It was nearly 60 per cent in Tasmania.
Redbridge pollster Simon Welsh said consistent results across metro, suburban, and regional NSW meant the state had voted No.
"The vote in the suburban areas just isn't strong enough to uplift the strength of the Yes vote in those areas against the No vote in the regional areas. In fact, it's not winning the parts of Sydney that it needs to win," he said.
In Tasmania, Welsh said a regional-city divide was "playing out very starkly".
"You can't win Tasmania by just winning Hobart, and we're seeing that here tonight; those regional voters … just overwhelmingly supporting the No case," he said.
The verdict of Victoria, dubbed the most progressive state in Australia, remained up in the air.
"Progressive Victoria is line ball at this stage, and that's kind of a best-case scenario," Welsh said.
Race over before polls close in WA
Polls remain open in Western Australia until 9pm AEDT, though the state is also predicted to deliver a resounding No verdict. Even a shock in WA would not see the referendum succeed, given it would produce a 4-2 loss for the Yes camp at best.
The result means Australians have rejected 37 of 45 referendums, and the Voice - a body of Indigenous Australians advising government on issues particularly impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people - will not be enshrined in the constitution.
If a 6-0 result materialises, no individual state will have voted for a referendum since 1984, a period which includes seven questions unanimously rejected.
Anthony Albanese with his partner Jodie Haydon waves farewell after meeting Yes campaigners and voters during a to visit a polling booth in Dapto, Wollongong on Saturday. Source: AAP / Dean Lewins
Albanese expected to address the nation
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has repeatedly stressed he would respect the verdict delivered by Australians on Saturday, and would not seek to legislate the Voice.
Albanese is spending the evening at The Lodge in Canberra, and is expected to speak publicly later this evening sometime after polls close in WA.
Speaking on Saturday morning, Albanese belied a sombre private mood in the Yes camp by publicly saying he remained "very hopeful" of an upset win.
"I stand here before you today as the 31st prime minister of Australia, saying this is an opportunity for Australia to unite, to be strengthened by reaching out to our most vulnerable citizens," he said.
Coalition leader Peter Dutton, who has vigorously opposed the Voice, has labelled Albanese's decision to hold the referendum a disaster.
"Unfortunately, the prime minister has divided the country with this process, and was told not to go down this path," he told Channel 7's Sunrise on Saturday.
This is a developing story and this article will be updated.
Follow the latest from SBS News at , or on the SBS News app available on or .
