The Projects Waleed Aly says less educated Aussies voted No to Voice

The Project host Waleed Aly has revealed why he believes the Voice referendum failed so miserably over the weekend, saying the concept wasn’t properly explained and Australians didn’t like the idea of giving one group more power over another.

Saturday’s vote was a decisive loss for the prime minister and ‘Yes’ campaigners, with the ‘No’ side winning with 60.7 per cent of the votes.

The result sparked international attention, and Aussie stars such as Isla Fisher labelled the outcome a “shameful” day for the country.

Discussing the failure of the ‘Yes’ campaign on The Project on Monday, Waleed shared his insight into just why it went so wrong after his co-star Steve Price labelled it ‘probably the worst campaign in political history”.

“It ends up being the elite argument. The more elite sector of society the more likely you were to vote Yes,” he explained.

“The biggest dividing line seems to have been education. If you were in a seat with high levels of tertiary education, bachelor or post you were at the very top end of the ‘Yes’ vote.

“If you had the lowest levels of socioeducation you were at the low end of the ‘Yes’ vote. “That’s not to say people who were educated know what they’re doing and people who don’t have tertiary education don’t.

He went on to say it was the “style” of the messaging from the ‘Yes’ campaign that failed to resonate with many voters from certain socioeconomic groups.

“I can totally see why you would propose it, if you go through the history, the experience of the people who came up with the idea, it actually makes perfect sense,” he said.

“But most people have not been on that journey. When you come to them with this idea that’s quite abstract and complicated, they’re going to respond with an instinct. That instinct is, it doesn’t feel right.”

Aly also explained that the vote felt different compared to the same-sex marriage vote back in 2017, which also asked Australians to vote on an issue that impacted a minority.

“The difference is Australians will vote to give everyone the same rights but they are less ready to start engaging in anything where this is for one group and this is for another, you can have your problems with that,” he explained.

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Co-star Sarah Harris then added: “At the end of the day we have first nations people who feel like this vote on them has gone the other way. They’re hurting. That is a terrible place to be for our country.”

In an emotional speech on Saturday night as the result became clear, Mr Albanese said he never imagined it would be easy to secure a victory but shared that he was disappointed by the outcome.

He said in a speech: “As Prime Minister I will always accept responsibility for the decisions I’ve taken and I do so tonight but I do want Australians to know I will always be ambitious for our country.”

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