The Year Our Voice Broke

The full account of how Australia considered the request for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, appeared to accept it and then rejected it.

The Indigenous request for a constitutionally entrenched Voice was thrust firmly onto the public stage with Anthony Albanese’s promise, on election night 2022, to submit it to a referendum. Political analysts Murray Goot and Tim Rowse trace the development and fortunes of the Voice, from early conversations between Indigenous leaders and constitutional conservatives, through to the referendum and its aftermath. The Uluru Statement from the Heart had been addressed to the Australian people in 2017, but in 2023 it was competition between the major parties that shaped the Yes and No campaigns.

Alongside this political history, The Year Our Voice Broke examines in detail just how public opinion was sought, shaped and interpreted in wide-ranging research, both published and unpublished. The referendum generated a quantity of polling unprecedented in Australia. Examining how questions were constructed, Goot and Rowse raise vital questions about how complex political ideas are brought to the public, how political campaigns are run and how the No vote may shape the future of Indigenous affairs in this country.