WA lags behind amid record number of Indigenous Australians enrolled to vote ahead of Voice referendum

Australia has reached a historic high in the number of First Nations peoples enrolled to vote, marking an important milestone as the nation prepares to decide this year on constitutionally enshrining a Voice to parliament.

However, WA has fallen far behind all other States and Territories despite having the third-highest population of Indigenous Australians.

The Australian Electoral Commission revealed an additional 21,000 Indigenous Australians enrolled to vote between June and December 2022, bringing the national estimated Indigenous enrolment rate up 2.8 per cent to a total of 84.5 per cent.

The surge is the highest on record since estimates were first calculated by the AEC in 2017.

The Voice referendum — tipped by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to be held between August and November — gives Australians the chance to vote for or against changing the Constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through the establishment of a representative Voice to inform government and parliamentary decisions.

Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said the recent rapid rise in numbers was “brilliant” but more needed to be done to close the enrolment gap, with 3 per cent of Australians yet to register their details.

“The estimated number of ‘unenrolled’ Indigenous Australians has gone under 100,000 for the first time — to just under 87,000 — and that is significant,” he said.

“We continue to work really hard in getting as many people to enrol as possible, with a particular focus on young Australians and Indigenous Australians who aren’t enrolled at as high a rate as others.”

But the latest AEC figures from December 2022 show that despite WA’s estimated 71,456-strong population of Indigenous people of voting age, only 52,942 or 74.1 per cent of these are enrolled to vote — more than 10 per cent below the national average.

The numbers stand in stark contrast to the figures from New South Wales, with 91.3 per cent of its 183,253 population enrolled.

Mr Rogers encouraged Australians to register — including the estimated 18,514 unenrolled Indigenous West Australians.

“I constantly hear from international counterparts who marvel at Australia’s 97 per cent overall enrolment rate but I want enrolment to be that high, and higher, for all Australians,” he said.

“It’s been nearly a quarter of a century since Australians have been able to have their say on an issue at a Referendum. You can’t vote if you’re not enrolled.”

On Thursday, the AEC launched a campaign aimed at closing the remaining gap ahead of the referendum — sending SMS and email messages to almost 400,000 Australians to remind them to enrol to vote.

The AEC reassured those who received an email or SMS prompting them to enrol that the communication was legitimate and used data obtained from other government agencies.

Anyone concerned about the legitimacy of a message they receive is encouraged to visit the AEC website for more information.