KEY POINTS:
- Australians will be heading to the polls to vote in a referendum for the first time in more than two decades.
- Holding a referendum is the only way for the government to amend the constitution.
- Here's what a referendum is, how it works, and why your vote matters.
Millions of Australians will be heading to the polls to vote in a referendum that decides whether an Indigenous Voice to Parliament will be enshrined in the nation's constitution.
At the annual Garma festival in the Northern Territory last year, in a public vote.
Australians will be asked to vote on the following question:
A proposed law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Do you approve this alteration?
It will be the first time in more than 23 years that Australians vote in a referendum. For many, it will be the first referendum they'll vote in.
So what is a referendum, how do they work, and why does your vote matter?
What is a referendum?
A referendum is a question put to eligible Australian voters that has the power to change the constitution, the body of rules that sets out how the country is governed.
Professor of constitutional law at the University of Sydney, Anne Twomey, says the constitution is the "most powerful document in the country".
Holding a referendum is the only way for the government to amend the constitution.
"The ultimate control of [the constitution] is held by the people because you can't change the constitution - or at least the words of it, anyway - unless you get the agreement of the Australian people in a referendum," she said.
"It means these days that the Australian people are sovereign."
How do referendums work?
Before a referendum is held, a bill must first be passed in the upper and lower houses of parliament in support of the vote going ahead.
That happened in June, leaving the government to set a date sometime between two and six months of the bill passing.
Former Australian diplomat Philip Flood and his wife, Carole, cast their votes in Australia's last referendum in 1999. Source: Getty / PA / Michael Stephens
For a referendum to be successful, there needs to be what is called a "double majority" - an overall majority, and a majority in most states.
That means the referendum can fail even if most Australians back it. That's happened five times before.
Didn't we have a public vote on same-sex marriage recently?
Yes, Australia held a national plebiscite in 2017 about whether people of the same sex could get married. But plebiscites are not the same as referendums.
A plebiscite puts a policy-based question to the Australian people, but they're not on issues that require a change in the constitution.
Supporters of same-sex marriage in the 2017 plebiscite campaigned vigorously ahead of the vote. Source: AAP / Danny Casey
They're more common than referendums, especially at a state level, where Australians have been asked about their views on daylight savings and alcohol laws.
Australia's last referendum was held in 1999 when eligible voters were asked if Australia should become a republic and if the constitution should be altered to insert a preamble. At a national level, 54.87 per cent voted No to a republic and 60.66 per cent voted No to the preamble question.
How have other referendums fared in the past?
Australia's past referendums haven't been very successful.
Since the federation in 1901 - and the establishment of the constitution - the country has put forward 44 referendums. Only eight have been successful.
"If we look back at our history, it tells us that achieving constitutional change in this country is very difficult," Dr Kildea said.
Professor Twomey puts the low success rate down to many reasons, but the most significant is that people are reluctant to pave way for a constitutional change if it's not necessary.
"If people don't feel confident and comfortable about making change, because they feel that they're not sufficiently knowledgeable about the constitution and how it works, they get seduced by this concept of 'don't know, vote no'," she said,
"They're afraid to say yes to a change to the constitution if they can't feel absolutely confident about what it's going to mean in the future.
"If you put something in the constitution, it potentially freezes it there for a long time, maybe 50 years, maybe 100 years. And if you get it wrong, then that can be problematic."
To avoid hesitancy around voting Yes, she said more education should be invested in schools about referendums and the constitution to avoid people feeling too scared to make a change.
Isn't this the job of politicians? Can't they decide?
While some countries, such as the United States, can change the wording of the constitution without holding a public vote, Dr Kildea said it's critical that Australians have their say in a democratic society.
"We put constitutional change in the hands of the people. There's a good reason for that, in that constitutional change is forever, quite possibly. Or at least, it's going to be for a very long time," he said.
"For such a fundamental change ... it makes sense that we put it through a more difficult process and that we ask for a special legitimacy that can only come from a popular vote."
Dr Kildea said expanding the right for politicians to change the constitution is dangerous.
"If we leave that simply in the hands of politicians, that's a very big power for them to have that they could change the basic rules of our political community into the future."
What happens if a referendum fails?
Referendums can be held again if they fail, and can be worded differently in an attempt to garner better prospects of success.
But, for the most part, Professor Twomey described referendums as a "one-shot game".
"If the Australian people vote against a proposal, then the chances of a government wanting to rerun it again unless it was really confident of success, are very low," she said.
"Once you've lost it, you need to leave a significant period of time for some kind of a reset before having another go."
But she said it's important to note that the federal government is unlikely to hold a referendum if it harboured concerns it would not succeed.
"I suspect the government would be very cautious about making sure there was significant community support before actually running the referendum to avoid that particular problem."
Is it compulsory to vote?
Yes. Like voting in elections, every eligible Australian must vote. Failure to do so without a reasonable explanation could result in a $20 fine.
