MOLESWORTH voters showed the strongest local support for the proposed indigenous voice to parliament in Saturday’s national referendum but none of the 12 Derwent Valley and Central Highlands polling places returned a majority vote in favour of the change to the Constitution.
The referendum asked: “A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Do you approve this proposed alteration?” and the results published by the Australian Electoral Commission show that the local polling booths largely mirrored the national “no” vote.
The “yes” vote struggled at all our local polling places, from a low of 19.76% at Bothwell and a high of 40.38% at Molesworth. The informal vote was low throughout the region, and our smallest polling place – Miena – was also the most accurate, with no informal votes counted among the booth’s total of 176 ballots. The informal vote peaked at just over 3% at Magra.
| BOTHWELL Yes – 65 (19.76%) No – 264 (80.24%) Informal – 5 (1.5%) | MIENA Yes – 36 (20.45%) No – 140 (79.55%) Informal – 0 (0%) |
| DROMEDARY Yes – 108 (28.35%) No – 273 (71.65%) Informal – 7 (1.8%) | MOLESWORTH Yes – 128 (40.38%) No – 189 (59.62%) Informal – 6 (1.86%) |
| GLENORA Yes – 81 (27.27%) No – 216 (72.73%) Informal – 3 (1%) | NEW NORFOLK Yes – 629 (32.81%) No – 1282 (67.09%) Informal – 37 (1.9%) |
| GRANTON Yes – 222 (32.13%) No – 469 (67.87%) Informal – 11 (1.57%) | NEW NORFOLK NORTH Yes – 350 (27.62%) No – 917 (72.38%) Informal – 27 (2.09%) |
| LACHLAN Yes – 168 (34.71%) No – 316 (65.29%) Informal – 6 (1.22%) | OUSE Yes – 61 (20.68%) No – 234 (79.32%) Informal – 4 (1.34%) |
| MAGRA Yes – 117 (20.53%) No – 453 (79.47%) Informal – 18 (3.06%) | WESTERWAY Yes – 132 (36.57%) No – 229 (63.43%) Informal – 4 (1.1%) |
Thanks to the New Norfolk and Derwent Valley News reader who crunched the numbers for us.
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