A left-leaning electorate that was once a Greens stronghold decisively voted No to the Voice – and now the mayor is flying the Aboriginal flag at half-mast.
Fremantle, covering both sides of Perth’s Swan River, rejected the Voice proposal with 53.5 per cent of voters opposed to amending the Constitution, Australian Electoral Commission figures show.
In the beachside Coogee polling booth, 60.2 per cent of voters wrote No.
This was despite the local City of Fremantle council spending $35,000 of ratepayers’ money on the failed Yes campaign.
Fremantle Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge, a former Labor staffer, on Monday announced her council would fly the Aboriginal flag at half-mast for the next week ‘as an expression of support for local elders following the Voice referendum result’.
A left-wing electorate that was once a Greens stronghold decisively voted No to the Voice – and now the mayor is flying the Aboriginal flag at half-mast (pictured is the City of Fremantle chambers)
Fremantle, covering both sides of Perth ‘s Swan River, rejected the Voice proposal with 53.5 per cent of voters opposed to amending the Constitution
‘We are deeply aware of the disappointment and grief currently being experienced by Fremantle’s Aboriginal elders and we want to express our support and empathy,’ she said on Instagram.
‘They have told me they would appreciate this simple sign of solidarity.’
Fremantle independent councillor Marija Vujcic said the lowering of the Aboriginal flag was disrespectful to voters who backed the No side.
‘She has no authority to lower that flag,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘That flag is only lowered in the case of a death of a king or queen, person of some note in the community.
‘She once again has taken it upon herself to basically trash the 53 per cent of her people, which are the majority.’
Councillor Vujcic said the money spent on the Yes campaign was part of an ‘ideologically-driven agenda which was divisive’ – from a council that couldn’t afford to keep a bus service.
‘How is the mayor now going to react to her ratepayers who voted No?’
The City of Fremantle’s Instagram message divided ratepayers with one woman, who voted Yes, explaining why the No vote prevailed.
‘I voted Yes but have a close friend who voted no,’ she said.
‘After I got over the shock of that I listened to his reasoning, and it was sadly legitimate.
‘If it had been Yes, how would it have been administered, in realistic terms?’
Daily Mail Australia sought comment from Fremantle Council over their backing of the Voice campaign.
This gentrified electorate of Fremantle is the only capital city one in Australia, that rejected the Voice, to have previously had a Greens MP.
The No vote prevailed despite Fremantle’s biggest booth backing the Voice with a 60.7 per cent Yes vote.
Fremantle also previously had a Greens mayor with Brad Pettitt elected in 2009, 2013 and 2017.
The port city has long been regarded as Western Australia’s most left-leaning with federal Greens leader Adam Bandt, who grew up in Perth, a Fremantle Dockers supporter.
The federal, Labor-held seat of Fremantle overlaps with the state seat of the same name where Adele Carles was the Greens member, following a 2009 by-election where she received 44 per cent of the primary vote.
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This was the highest-ever first preference vote at the time for a minor party in a state lower house seat, but she quit the Greens the following year after she began a relationship with Liberal treasurer Troy Buswell.
Fremantle had Western Australia’s strongest Greens vote in the 2021 state election that saw then premier Mark McGowan’s Labor Party win 53 out of 59 lower house seats.
Here, the Greens vote was 18.6 per cent, making it the state’s most left-leaning electorate.
At the last federal election, the Greens still had 18.2 per cent of the vote in Fremantle, held by Labor’s Josh Wilson.
Perth, an inner-city Labor seat, was the only one in Western Australia to back the Voice with a 55.9 per cent Yes vote.
Fremantle Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge, a former Labor staffer, on Monday announced her council would fly the Aboriginal flag at half-mast for the next week ‘as an expression of support for local elders following the Voice referendum result’
The rest of the mining-rich state voted No with a landslide 63.8 per cent rejecting the constitutional amendment proposal, after Labor Premier Roger Cook had to abandon his predecessor’s disastrous Aboriginal heritage laws.
The Voice has also failed in inner-city areas with Labor MPs, including Adelaide and Boothby, Chisholm and Hotham in Melbourne, and Lilley in Brisbane.
Mr Bandt’s seat of Melbourne had the highest Yes vote of 77.3 per cent.
The Voice was also approved in his party’s other lower house seats in Queensland.
Brisbane voted Yes with 55.8 per cent support.
In Griffith, support was at 55.7 per cent while it was 52 per cent in Ryan, a former Liberal Party stronghold which overlaps with the state Greens seat of Maiwar.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s gentrified Sydney inner-west electorate of Grayndler had a 74.3 per cent Yes vote.
It overlaps with the Greens state seats of Balmain and Newtown.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s seat of Sydney had a 70.8 per cent Yes vote, with this electorate overlapping with part of Newtown at a state level.
The Wollongong-based Labor seat of Cunningham narrowly supported the Voice with 51.4 per cent support, in an electorate which the Greens held from 2002 to 2004 following a by-election.
Perth, an inner-city Labor seat, was the only one in Western Australia to back the Voice with a 55.9 per cent Yes vote. The rest of the mining-rich state voted No with a landslide 63.8 per cent rejecting the constitutional amendment proposal, after Labor Roger Cook had to abandon his predecessor’s disastrous Aboriginal heritage laws
Labor’s inner-city seats in Melbourne, where the Greens vote is high, backed the Voice with 63 per cent support in Macnamara covering St Kilda, and 64 per cent support in Wills, covering Brunswick.
In Melbourne’s inner north, the Yes vote was 65 per cent in Cooper, overlapping with the state seat of Northcote which firebrand senator Lidia Thorpe held for the Greens in 2017 and 2018.
The Australian Capital Territory’s three federal Labor seats of Canberra, Bean and Fenner voted Yes, with the local territory assembly having Greens MPs who govern in a minority Labor government.
But the Labor-held seat of Richmond, in northern NSW, delivered a 56.8 per cent No vote.
It overlaps with the Greens-held seat of Ballina containing the Byron Bay booth, which backed Yes with 64.9 per cent support.
Just 32 lower seats out of 151 voted Yes to the Voice, with the national No vote at 60.7 per cent.
The Yes seats included seven held by a ‘teal’ independent, four Greens electorates, one Liberal seat and 19 with a Labor member.
