The reason thousands of people will get no say on the Voice
Almost one in five Indigenous Queenslanders will not have their voice heard on whether Australia should set up a Voice to Parliament, unless enrolment rates are boosted.
And officials warned everyone must write “yes” or “no” – in English – in this year’s referendum, or their vote could be wasted.
Work was ongoing to boost the number of Indigenous people on the electoral roll and encourage people to exercise that vote.Credit: Australian Electoral Commission
Later this year, people will be asked whether the Constitution should be changed to recognise First Nations Australians by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
But Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) figures reveal just 83.2 per cent of Indigenous Queenslanders were estimated to be enrolled to vote, meaning about 26,000 Indigenous people in the state were missing from the roll.
Nationally, 84.5 per cent of Indigenous people were enrolled to vote, which equated to almost 87,000 Indigenous adults across the country who would be unable to vote in the Voice referendum.
That was in contrast to the 97.2 per cent of eligible Australians who were enrolled, the highest level since federation.
Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said work was ongoing to boost the number of Indigenous people on the electoral roll and encourage people to exercise that vote.
“We’ve also done a whole range of things over the last couple of years – trials including mail bags, community mail bags, emails and a range of things ... [and] enabling citizens to use Medicare cards as evidence of identity for enrolment,” he said.
The AEC also posts Indigenous content on social media, translates material into Indigenous languages, and partners with community organisations on the ground.
Rogers said Indigenous enrolment had grown 10 per cent in the past five years.
The AEC translates material into Indigenous languages, and partners with community organisations on the ground.Credit: Australian Electoral Commission
“It has outstripped the growth in the general roll,” he said.
AEC Queensland manager Stephanie Attard said mobile teams would venture to a variety of remote communities via plane, helicopter and 4WD to ensure everyone could have their say in the referendum.
“We will pull out all stops ... to reach townships with as few as 20 electors,” she said.
The AEC will launch an information campaign before the referendum, including explaining that to lodge a formal vote, people must either write “yes” or “no”, in English.
Rogers said officials would try to work out a voter’s intent if they scrawled something other than “yes” or “no”, meaning a tick might be considered a vote for “yes”.
But marking the paper with a cross would probably end up rendering it informal, and not counted.
About 7 million Australians will vote in a referendum for the first time during this year’s event, which does not yet have a date.
The last referendum, on the question of whether Australia should become a republic, had a voter turnout of 95 per cent, and an informal voting rate of less than 1 per cent.