‘The Year Our Voice Broke does an excellent job in exploring why people voted the way they did at the 2023 Voice referendum. It does not just describe a historical event. This book is highly relevant today, regardless of whether or not there will be another Voice referendum in the future, because the Uluru Statement is not going away anytime soon.’
Dr Anthony Dillon, Honorary Fellow at Australian Catholic University
‘If you are looking for clear and trustworthy analysis on anything to do with political polling in Australia, Murray Goot and Tim Rowse are always your best bet. Their meticulous research and nuanced analysis are particularly needed in the case of the Voice referendum. In The Year Our Voice Broke, they offer a compelling account of what the referendum reveals about our democracy. Important reading for political and polling geeks as well as voters interested in understanding the referendum and its lasting significance.’
Dr Rebecca Huntley, Director of Research, 89 Degrees East, and author of Talk About Climate Change in a Way That Makes a Difference
‘Murray Goot and Tim Rowse survey every poll and every opinion, analysing the multiple factors that contributed to the inevitable, irreversible slide in the 2023 Voice referendum. The nation needs to learn the lessons of this book if there is to be a mature constitutional recognition of the First Australians.’
Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO, member of the Calma–Langton Voice Co-Design Senior Advisory Group
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in detail just how public opinion was sought, shaped and interpreted in wide-ranging research, both published and unpublished.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.
