Dr Anne Wester not surprised as Mallee voters reject Voice referendum

The overall Mallee electorate count was 79,172 No votes (79.16 per cent) and 20,843 Yes votes (20.84 per cent).

Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster said she was not surprised by the result or the strong opposition by constituents.

"I wasn't surprised. I conducted my own poll as part of Mallee's Biggest Survey which showed 64 per cent of those polled would vote no at that time." she said.

"This was done months before the referendum itself and included an option for undecided, so I'd have expected the percentage to grow when it came time to vote."

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In May, Dr Webster invited the community to take part in her annual survey, which saw about 5000 residents report.

Some of the highest No votes landed before the official referendum day, with pre-polling voting centre recording a bulk of votes.

The outer Mildura PPVC recorded 9539 No votes, while the Horsham PPVC (8142 votes), Swan Hill (6345 votes), Maryborough PPVC (4644 votes) and Stawell PPVC (2023 votes) all contributed to the highest percentage in Victoria.

Only one of the 103 polling booths and early voting centres in the electorate voted in favour of The Voice to Parliament referendum - Halls Gap - with 55 per cent of the 200 voters saying Yes.

The referendum was defeated in less than 90 minutes with all Australian states voting no to an Indigenous Voice.

As the dust settles, Dr Webster said she will continue to work on improving the health outcomes of all regional Australians.

"The Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs Jacinta Nampijinpa Price will lead the Coalition Opposition's work, liaising with Indigenous leaders and communities," she said.

"As Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health, I continue working on improving health outcomes for all remote, rural and regional Australians who are suffering significant disadvantage and unacceptably poorer health outcomes across all cultural identities - regardless of their race."

Not a single regional electorate voted in favour of the Voice to Parliament, which showed Labor must "start genuinely listening to the regions" instead of "urban echo chambers", rural politicians say.

The referendum failed to secure a double majority in overall votes and number of states, with roughly 60pc of the population voting no, and no states voting in favour. Those few electorates that did vote yes were all located in inner-metro areas.

The electorate of Nationals leader David Littleproud, Maranoa, had the largest no vote in the country, at 84.8 per cent, with only 15 per cent voting in favour.

Mr Littleproud said he was respectful of the result and "the Australian people always get it right".

"The result in my electorate is one of lived experience," Mr Littleproud said.

"[The vote] would have flipped had it been just about constitutional recognition. But they didn't see the need for a conflation of more bureaucracy."

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Mr Littleproud said the message from regional Australians was clear; local Indigenous groups should be empowered because nationalised programs don't work.

The Nationals leader dismissed concerns the Coalition was still out of step with the teal-seats, who all voted in favour, which the Liberal Party must to win off independents if Mr Littleproud is to become Deputy Prime Minister.

"The election is 18 months away, I don't think the Voice will be top of mind in teal seats nor in my own seat," Mr Littleproud said.

"I respect that those teal seats voted yes, I think they came with genuine intent and their ideology was pure. But they didn't have the lived experience, being somewhat isolated to the rest of Australia."

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