JANE AGIRTAN INDEPENDENT

Why Australians voted to be equal.

A year ago on Monday, 60% of Australians voted for all Australians to be equal. 

We did so in the face of a Yes campaign that had the overwhelming support of the media, big business, religious organisations, civil society, and elite opinion.  Not to mention Yes had four times the funding of the No campaign.  And not to forget the efforts of the social media companies, the federal government’s eSafety Commissioner, and ‘Fact Check’ organisations that attempted to censor and control what the No case could say.  Yet…despite all of this, equality still won. 

Australia has had 45 referendums. 

Never has a side in a referendum been supported like Yes, and never has a side been so comprehensively defeated.

The Voice referendum is one of the milestone events in Australian political history.  It’s hugely significant for many reasons. 

It revealed that the overwhelming majority of Australians reject the progressive, left-wing agenda being imposed upon them by the country’s elites. 

It’s an agenda Australians don’t want and have never asked for – yet it seems to continue apace.  It’s too early to tell whether the Voice referendum result will be a roadblock to identity politics becoming a permanent feature of Australia’s politics and public life or whether it will be merely a speed hump. 

To coincide with the first anniversary of the referendum, the Institute of Public Affairs last week released its analysis of a survey commissioned with Advance, of referendum voters conducted last year.  The survey, ‘Australians Speak 2023’, conducted by one of Australia’s leading market research firms, insightfully asked 3,526 Australians some 40 questions about their vote.  It’s the most detailed survey of its kind, and its findings correspond with two other surveys taken after the referendum by the Centre for Social Research and Methods at the Australian National University and by the Australian Population Research Institute.

70% of Australians who voted No said they believed the Voice would divide the country.      

Other findings from the survey were:

• Even with bipartisan support the Voice would have failed.
• Big business and elite support for the Voice likely increased support for No.
• More than a third of Labor voters voted No.
• A significant proportion of young Australians voted No, and a majority of males in all age groups voted No.
• Social media was the biggest influence on young Australians.  Mainstream news media was the biggest influence on older Australians.
• The leaders of the No campaign had significantly higher profiles and approval ratings than the leaders of the Yes campaign.
• Despite the defeat of the Voice, there remains majority support for Indigenous recognition.