Advocates for constitutional change in Australia said they were devastated on Saturday by the defeat of a referendum that would have created an advocacy committee to offer advice to Parliament on policies that affect Indigenous people — the nation's most disadvantaged ethnic minority.
Early counting showed that 57 per cent of voters opposed the Indigenous Voice. Australian Broadcasting Corp. projections found New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia had rejected the amendment.
The Voice needed majorities in each of at least four of the six states as well as a national majority for the referendum to pass.
Voice advocate Tanya Hosch, who spent a decade on developing the model, told ABC: “On a personal level, I feel devastated.”
“There's going to be a lot of pain and hurt and dismay and we're going to need to take a moment to absorb that message and what it says,” Hosch said.
Another advocate, Tom Mayo, said he was also "devastated” and blamed unfair attacks on the plan.
"We have seen a disgusting no' campaign. A campaign that has been dishonest, that has lied to the Australian people,” Mayo said.
Opinion polls in recent months indicated a strong majority of Australians opposed the proposal. Earlier in the year, a majority had supported it, before the “no" campaign gathered intensity.
Voice advocates had hoped that listening to Indigenous views would lead to more effective delivery of government services and better outcomes for Indigenous lives.
Comprising just 3.8% of the total population, Indigenous Australians, on average, experience a life expectancy eight years shorter than the broader population. They also face a suicide rate twice as high as the national average and grapple with diseases in remote Outback areas that have been eliminated in more affluent nations.
The Voice would have been the first referendum passed since 1977 and the first ever to pass without the bipartisan support of the major political parties.
