KEY POINTS:
- Australians will vote on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament on 14 October.
- Anthony Albanese has finally revealed the referendum date.
- It will be the first referendum held in Australia since 1999.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared a "marathon" for First Nations Australians has become a "sprint for all of us", confirming Australians will vote on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in six weeks.
Albanese ended months of speculation by announcing Australia's first referendum in a generation will be held on 14 October.
The vote will determine whether the Voice, a body providing advice to government on issues particularly impacting Indigenous people, will be enshrined in the constitution.
Speaking in Adelaide on Wednesday, Albanese urged voters to seize an opportunity to "say yes to an idea whose time has come".
Anthony Albanese announced 14 October as the date when Australia's first referendum in a generation will be held. Source: AAP / Mark Brake
"October 14 is our time. It's our chance. It's a moment calling out to the best of our Australian character. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, this has been a marathon. For all of us, it is now a sprint."
Despite questions about its remit, Albanese insisted the Voice's outlook would be “straightforward, clear, unambiguous”.
“Recognition, listening to advice, parliament continuing as decision-maker,” he said.
“That's the clear, positive, and practical request from Indigenous Australians. That is the hand out asking us, non-indigenous Australians, to just grasp that hand of friendship.
“And that is what we can vote Yes for.”
He said the Voice would lean on the knowledge of communities as far from Canberra as Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, insisting there “are local success stories out there” that had been missed in the capital.
And he urged Australians not to “close the door” on “the next generation of Indigenous Australians”.
“Just imagine the progress we could make with a Voice connecting the regions with the nation, giving locals a say,” he said.
“Of course, that means that we save money too. Because we'll be making sure the funding actually reaches the people on the ground."
How would the vote on the Voice work?
Australians will be asked a simple Yes or No question at the ballot box:
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?
In a federal or state election, you’re given a list of boxes to number.
This time, there’ll be just one box. .
Is voting in the Voice referendum compulsory?
Voting is compulsory for eligible Australians aged 18 or over, and those who don’t comply risk being fined.
If you’re not going to be at home on the referendum date, early voting will be open two weeks before polling day. It’ll be available at 500 centres across Australia, though the exact locations are yet to be revealed by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).
How do I vote if I'm overseas?
There’ll be options if you’re overseas at the time of the referendum.
International voting had been limited by COVID-19, but the AEC says at least 85 overseas voting centres - at places such as embassies and consulates - will be active for this vote.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong was among those at the announcement in the northern Adelaide suburb of Elizabeth. Source: AAP / Mark Brake
How does a referendum pass?
That’s a Yes vote of more than 50 per cent, and a majority in at least four states. The territories don’t count towards the latter.
That’s a high bar, meaning referendums are notoriously difficult to pass.
And, on five occasions, the majority of Australians actually voted for a referendum, but it failed because at least three states voted No.
The last time Australians voted Yes in a referendum was 1977, almost half a century ago.
What is the Voice?
The Voice would be a body advising government on issues particularly impacting Indigenous Australians.
It was first called for in the 2017 Uluru Statement From the Heart, which emerged after years of dialogues with Indigenous communities across Australia.
It wouldn’t have the power to veto laws passed by parliament, and the government would not be compelled to enact its advice.
Hundreds of people turned out in Adelaide to hear Anthony Albanese announce the date. Credit: Peta Doherty
in a consultation period with Indigenous leaders across Australia after the referendum.
So what does the government want?
While the Coalition has criticised what it calls a lack of detail in the proposal, Labor has given some hints at what it wants the Voice to look like.
Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney hopes it will focus on four main areas: Health, Education, Housing, Employment.
Australians will vote on 14 October. Credit: Peta Doherty
- Members would have fixed-term dates to "ensure accountability"
- It would be gender balanced and include youth members
- It would draw on representatives from all states and territories
- It would include representatives from specific remote communities
What are the arguments for and against the Voice?
You may have heard quite a few claims floating around over the past few months, but the main arguments can be distilled into .
The Yes camp believes the Voice:
- Would improve outcomes for Indigenous Australians by listening to them when policies about them are made
- Would be protected by the constitution, meaning future governments couldn’t simply remove it
- Is what Indigenous people have asked for via the Uluru Statement From the Heart
The main No camp believes the Voice:
- Would divide Australians by race and add race to the constitution, creating different classes of citizenship
- Would be legally risky, in that it would be open to legal challenge
- Would not help Indigenous Australians to close the gap and achieve reconciliation
Others oppose the idea for completely different reasons. The Blak Sovereign Movement, represented in parliament by independent senator Lidia Thorpe, argues the Voice would be too powerless to affect meaningful change.
How does the counting work?
Every ballot paper is counted by hand, and counts at every polling place will be conducted twice to confirm the results.
Each part of the count will be open to scrutineers.
Every vote cast throughout the day and the majority of early votes will be counted on polling night.
When will we know the result of the Voice referendum?
The AEC says it may “require up to 13 days after polling night for a result to be known”, but it’s likely to be well before that.
Depending on how decisive the vote is, we may know within hours. If it's going strongly one way, media can often call races early based on votes already counted.
But like a federal election, it could take days to determine a very close result.
And the AEC can only formally call a result when no other is mathematically possible, which could take a bit longer. For example, the 1999 referendum result was known on the night. But the AEC didn’t formally call it for a fortnight.
Will the Voice referendum pass?
While there are always variations from poll to poll, it’s been a downward trajectory for the Yes camp over the past year.
Newspoll has consistently had support for the Voice slipping and, if the polls are to be believed, the situation looks almost unsalvageable for the Yes camp in Western Australia and Queensland.
If both of those vote against the Voice, the No camp needs just one other state to sink the referendum (regardless of whether most Australians majority vote Yes).
SBS and NITV will be broadcasting the announcement live from 11.30am AEST.
Stay informed on the 2023 Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum from across the SBS Network, including First Nations perspectives through NITV.
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