Australians vote no in historic referendum on expanding indigenous rights

Voters fill their ballot papers at a polling station on Bondi Beach in Sydney on October 14, 2023, as polls open in Australia's historic Indigenous rights referendum. © AFP / DAVID GRAY

Sydney (AFP) – Australians have roundly rejected greater rights for indigenous citizens, scuppering plans to amend the country's 122-year-old constitution after a divisive and racially-tinged referendum campaign.

With two-thirds of polling places reporting, 55 percent of voters had voted "no" to acknowledging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the country's constitution for the first time.