Political reporter Chantelle Al-Khouri has detailed the Voice referendum.
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00:00 It's clear the yes side and the government held out until the very end and were very
00:06 hopeful that Australians would turn out to vote yes.
00:09 Now the government and the Prime Minister have since accepted the decisions, the decision
00:13 made by Australians, acknowledging that this would be a hard result for many, particularly
00:17 those who campaigned for a long time on this.
00:22 There obviously are many questions about what comes next and what this means around government
00:28 efforts for First Nations people and particularly reconciliation.
00:32 Anthony Albanese, last night you just heard him speak there, he promised that this is
00:35 not the end of reconciliation, it's not the end of the road.
00:39 We did hear from Deputy Prime Minister Richard Miles a little earlier on Insiders.
00:43 He reasserted that the government would not launch another referendum attempt for Indigenous
00:48 recognition in the Constitution, but he said that the result was not a rejection of Indigenous
00:53 reconciliation or efforts to close the gap.
00:56 Here's some of what he had to say.
00:58 I think Australians yesterday, whether they voted yes or no, would see that a situation
01:03 where a group of our fellow citizens by virtue of their birth are living shorter and less
01:08 healthy lives is fundamentally unfair and we need to act to change that and to close
01:14 the gap.
01:15 And from the government's point of view, obviously that is now our focus.
01:19 The Australian people have asked us to do this in a different way.
01:22 We hear that and we'll do that and we'll now look at how we can work harder to close
01:29 the gap.
01:31 The government has obviously focused a lot of its messaging around reconciliation.
01:35 We know that academic and prominent Yes campaigner, Professor Marcia Langton, yesterday declared
01:40 on NITV that reconciliation is dead because of the outcome and she blamed the No campaign
01:46 for poisoning Australia against this proposition.
01:49 Now, Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, stood beside the Prime Minister,
01:54 Anthony Albanese, yesterday after that outcome was confirmed.
01:57 She maintained, though, that that message of reconciliation, that this is not the end
02:03 for reconciliation.
02:04 She did, though, say that it is a day for sadness.
02:07 Here's what she had to say.
02:08 To all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, I want to say this.
02:20 I know the last few months have been tough, but be proud of who you are.
02:28 Be proud of your identity.
02:31 Be proud of the 65,000 years of history and culture that you are part of and your rightful
02:40 place in this country.
02:43 We will carry on and we will move forward and we will thrive.
02:49 Linda Burney there.
02:50 Chantelle, what other reaction has there been?
02:53 Well, some Indigenous leaders have begun what they're calling a week of silence to grieve
02:58 the outcome of the referendum.
03:00 They've issued a statement last night where they said this was a chance for non-Indigenous
03:04 Australians to show grace and gratitude and now is not the time to dissect the reasons
03:09 for this tragic outcome, but instead to mourn.
03:12 So they won't be making any media appearances this week.
03:16 On the other side of the debate, though, we did hear from the opposition leader, Peter
03:20 Dutton.
03:21 We know that the coalition has been actively campaigning against this proposal.
03:25 He's claimed this result was good for the country.
03:28 Here's what he had to say.
03:30 And while yes and no voters may hold differences of opinion, these opinions of difference do
03:35 not diminish our love for our country or our regard for each other.
03:40 This is the referendum that Australia did not need to have.
03:44 The proposal and the process should have been designed to unite Australians, not to divide
03:50 us.
03:53 Despite that announcement that there would be a week of silence, there's already discussion
03:57 about what went wrong.
03:58 The government has pointed to the lack of bipartisan support from the coalition and
04:03 also misinformation from the no campaign.
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