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.
