Voice to parliament referendum fails in defeat that Indigenous advocates will see as a blow to progress towards reconciliation

Australians have resoundingly rejected a proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in the country’s constitution and establish a body to advise parliament on Indigenous issues.

Saturday’s voice to parliament referendum failed, with the defeat clear shortly after polls closed.

This blog is now closed

• Voice referendum 2023 live results tracker map and votes by state
• Rejecting the voice shows Australia is still in denial, its history of forgetting a festering wrong | Lorena Allam
• Albanese wanted to end two centuries of silence, but we said no – and failed our First Nations people | Katharine Murphy

The prime minister is asked “what happens tomorrow?” after the vote. He says:

A yes vote means we wake up like we did after the apology to the Stolen Generations, as a stronger country with a burden lifted from all of us, having shown respect for the First Australians and the great privilege that we have to share this continent with the oldest continuous culture on Earth.

A simple request by the first Australians just to be heard, to have a voice, to be listened to about matters that affect them. A non-binding advisory committee. Nothing to fear here but everything to gain.

I sincerely hope that Australians, when they walk into that ballot box today, vote yes – vote yes to accept this gracious invitation as the Uluru Statement from the Heart so eloquently says in its one page to overcome the torment of powerlessness that has led to an eight-year life expectancy gap, to a greater chance of an Indigenous young male going to jail than university, to an Indigenous young woman twice as likely to die in childbirth as a non-Indigenous woman.

I tell you what division represents in this country – division is the division between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Leading yes campaigner questions how many lives will be ‘lost or cut short’ in the meantime if referendum does not succeed

• Voice referendum explainer; latest voice poll results; help us monitor ads and misinformation
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

The leading yes campaigner Thomas Mayo says problems facing Indigenous Australians cannot be fixed without a mechanism like the voice to parliament and has pleaded with voters to back the referendum rather than delaying the vital reform to future generations.

Mayo called the voice “the moral and logical thing” for Australians to support, saying it was inevitable that something like the advisory body would need to be set up at some point.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Australian Medical Association and Uluru Dialogue say patients and medical staff could be disenfranchised after AEC continues Covid-era policy

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Australia’s peak medical body and a key group backing the Indigenous voice to parliament have raised concerns patients and medical staff may be disenfranchised in the referendum, after a pandemic-era decision not to send mobile voting teams into hospitals was made permanent.

During the 2022 federal election, the Australian Electoral Commission decided it was not appropriate to send polling officials into hospitals, given the risk of Covid infection and transmission, and the AEC has confirmed the policy is still in place for the referendum.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup