Ipswich, October 16, 2023 – Deputy Chair of the No Case and Liberal National Senator for Queensland Paul Scarr acknowledges the referendum results as an overwhelming rejection of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Voice to Parliament.
Senator Paul Scarr said that the people of Australia have spoken and that the people of Ipswich were some of the loudest.
“The referendum lost in every voting booth in the Ipswich City Council area.”
“In the Federal Seat of Blair, the No vote is 70.18% and the Yes vote is 29.82%. In our local area 67,140 residents voted No compared to 28,533 who voted Yes – a difference of over 38,000,” said Senator Scarr.
“Having spent 9 hours at the polling booth at Churchill State School on Saturday, the reasons were clear.
“Ipswich residents want to be treated the same under our Constitution. They do not want Australians to be divided.”
Ipswich-based Senator Paul Scarr also said that many voters raised the enormous cost of the referendum, adding that “Ipswich residents are struggling in a cost-of-living crisis. It made no sense to propose a referendum which did not have wide support and lacked detail.”
“The people of Ipswich want to see the conditions for Indigenous Australians improved. All Australians do. But this was not the way.”
The Government must now focus on implementing practical policies that will make a difference on the ground; especially in remote and regional Indigenous communities where the disadvantage is the greatest.
“There was no need to amend our Constitution to do that,” said Senator Paul Scarr.
