A referendum will be held in late 2023 to seek the approval of Australian voters to change the Australian Constitution
The draft question that will be put to voters is whether to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
While a date hasn’t been announced, the Federal Government has stated its intention to hold the referendum sometime between September and December 2023.
Exact timing is a matter for Government. The date will be formalised by the issuing of a writ by the Governor-General (the formal instruction to the AEC to conduct a poll).
A referendum must be held no earlier than two months and no later than six months after a Constitution alteration bill has passed Parliament.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has developed a range of fact sheets on the referendum to help communities to understand the process:
Referendum factsheet.pdf(PDF, 482KB) | Referendum factsheet How To Vote.pdf(PDF, 160KB) | Referendum Stop and Consider factsheet.pdf(PDF, 92KB)
Other general information can be found at www.aec.gov.au/referendums/. Additional resources and information about the referendum process will be available closer to the voting period.
We encourage people to enrol or check their details online at www.aec.gov.au.
The AEC is also recruiting up to 100,000 temporary staff to deliver the referendum in metro, regional and remote parts of Australia. The AEC’s role is to successfully deliver an impartial referendum with the highest levels of integrity. To work at the referendum people must be, and be seen to be, both politically neutral and issue neutral.
