Australia’s failed Indigenous rights vote sets back Canberra’s plans to cut ties to Britain’s King Charles: minister
- Matt Thistlethwaite said there will be reluctance for another public vote in the ‘short term’, after the failed referendum on Indigenous rights last weekend
- Queen Elizabeth’s death last year at the age of 96 was widely seen as increasing Australians’ mood for constitutional change to become a republic
Australians last week overwhelmingly rejected the referendum that would have enshrined in the constitution an Indigenous advisory body to Parliament.
The loss reduced the chances of another referendum soon to make the country a republic with an Australian president as head of state instead of the British monarch, Assistant Minister for the Republic Matt Thistlethwaite said.
Australians are reluctant to look at further referendums in the short term
“In my view, it’s not off, but it does certainly make it a lot harder,” Thistlethwaite told Sky News Australia.
“Australians are reluctant to look at further referendums in the short term,” he added.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made the Voice referendum a top priority for his centre-left Labor Party government’s first three-year term when it was elected last year.
Albanese placed Thistlethwaite in charge of paving the way toward a republic and left open the prospect of a referendum being held in a second term if Labor wins the 2025 election.
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Australians vote ‘no’ in historic referendum that would have widened indigenous political rights
