Australians overwhelming vote down Voice referendum

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Political reporter Chantelle Al-Khouri has detailed the Voice referendum.

Transcript

00:00 It's clear the yes side and the government held out until the very end and were very

00:06 hopeful that Australians would turn out to vote yes.

00:09 Now the government and the Prime Minister have since accepted the decisions, the decision

00:13 made by Australians, acknowledging that this would be a hard result for many, particularly

00:17 those who campaigned for a long time on this.

00:22 There obviously are many questions about what comes next and what this means around government

00:28 efforts for First Nations people and particularly reconciliation.

00:32 Anthony Albanese, last night you just heard him speak there, he promised that this is

00:35 not the end of reconciliation, it's not the end of the road.

00:39 We did hear from Deputy Prime Minister Richard Miles a little earlier on Insiders.

00:43 He reasserted that the government would not launch another referendum attempt for Indigenous

00:48 recognition in the Constitution, but he said that the result was not a rejection of Indigenous

00:53 reconciliation or efforts to close the gap.

00:56 Here's some of what he had to say.

00:58 I think Australians yesterday, whether they voted yes or no, would see that a situation

01:03 where a group of our fellow citizens by virtue of their birth are living shorter and less

01:08 healthy lives is fundamentally unfair and we need to act to change that and to close

01:14 the gap.

01:15 And from the government's point of view, obviously that is now our focus.

01:19 The Australian people have asked us to do this in a different way.

01:22 We hear that and we'll do that and we'll now look at how we can work harder to close

01:29 the gap.

01:31 The government has obviously focused a lot of its messaging around reconciliation.

01:35 We know that academic and prominent Yes campaigner, Professor Marcia Langton, yesterday declared

01:40 on NITV that reconciliation is dead because of the outcome and she blamed the No campaign

01:46 for poisoning Australia against this proposition.

01:49 Now, Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, stood beside the Prime Minister,

01:54 Anthony Albanese, yesterday after that outcome was confirmed.

01:57 She maintained, though, that that message of reconciliation, that this is not the end

02:03 for reconciliation.

02:04 She did, though, say that it is a day for sadness.

02:07 Here's what she had to say.

02:08 To all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, I want to say this.

02:20 I know the last few months have been tough, but be proud of who you are.

02:28 Be proud of your identity.

02:31 Be proud of the 65,000 years of history and culture that you are part of and your rightful

02:40 place in this country.

02:43 We will carry on and we will move forward and we will thrive.

02:49 Linda Burney there.

02:50 Chantelle, what other reaction has there been?

02:53 Well, some Indigenous leaders have begun what they're calling a week of silence to grieve

02:58 the outcome of the referendum.

03:00 They've issued a statement last night where they said this was a chance for non-Indigenous

03:04 Australians to show grace and gratitude and now is not the time to dissect the reasons

03:09 for this tragic outcome, but instead to mourn.

03:12 So they won't be making any media appearances this week.

03:16 On the other side of the debate, though, we did hear from the opposition leader, Peter

03:20 Dutton.

03:21 We know that the coalition has been actively campaigning against this proposal.

03:25 He's claimed this result was good for the country.

03:28 Here's what he had to say.

03:30 And while yes and no voters may hold differences of opinion, these opinions of difference do

03:35 not diminish our love for our country or our regard for each other.

03:40 This is the referendum that Australia did not need to have.

03:44 The proposal and the process should have been designed to unite Australians, not to divide

03:50 us.

03:53 Despite that announcement that there would be a week of silence, there's already discussion

03:57 about what went wrong.

03:58 The government has pointed to the lack of bipartisan support from the coalition and

04:03 also misinformation from the no campaign.

04:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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