Voters will decide whether to recognise First Nations peoples for the first time in the 1901 constitution and create an Indigenous advisory body for policies that affect their communities.
Australians have begun voting in a historic referendum, the first in almost a quarter of a century, to decide whether to recognise its First Peoples in the constitution, as requested by the country's Indigenous leaders six years ago.
Counting of the votes will begin after polls close at 6 pm , and the Australian Electoral Commission will release updated tallies as they come in from voting centres.The Voice to Parliament was proposed in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, a 2017 document that set out a roadmap for Indigenous reconciliation with wider Australia.
Public debate over the referendum, however, steadily shifted to divisive issues such as race, privilege and who gets what, with detractors arguing that the Voice would give special rights to Aboriginal people in the founding document.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Analysis: Indigenous reconciliation at stake as Australia votes on the VoicePhone lines at 13Yarn, a national Indigenous helpline in Australia, are ringing off the hook.
Read more »
Summit County announces down payment assistance program, First Home First Loan, for some first-time homebuyersGet City of Akron, Ohio breaking news, events, businesses, classifieds, sports, photos, videos and more. Comment on the news and join forum at cleveland.com.
Read more »
The fragmented forces opposing Australia's Indigenous referendumAustralia is scheduled to hold a referendum on Oct. 14 to decide whether to create a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous advisory body to parliament, as requested by the country's Indigenous leaders in 2017.
Read more »
'Kindness costs nothing': Australia PM pleads ahead of 'doomed' Indigenous voteAustralians will vote 'Yes' or 'No' to a question asking whether they want to alter the 122-year-old constitution to create an Indigenous body, Voice to Parliament.
Read more »
Final arguments are being made before Australia's vote Saturday to create Indigenous VoiceOpposing campaigners have made their final pitches over changing the Australia’s constitution to acknowledge a place for Indigenous Australians on the eve of the nation’s first referendum in a generation.
Read more »
Final arguments are being made before Australia's vote Saturday to create Indigenous VoiceOpposing campaigners have made their final pitches over changing the Australia’s constitution to acknowledge a place for Indigenous Australians on the eve of the nation’s first referendum in a generation. Saturday's referendum has the potential to amend Australia’s founding legal document for the first time since 1977.
Read more »