Australia

No vote is "wasted". That happens in some other election systems (e.g. the United States) but it doesn't happen here.

Gerrymandering is an issue in Australia, and also the territories have less representation than a proper state (not just NT - we have ten Territories in Australia, mostly off shore islands). But there's none of that for a referendum - it's a straight count of votes.

The way we structure our democracy with territories makes sense for the other nine territories. We shouldn't change that, instead we should make the NT a state. I'm sure it'll happen one day, when there are more people living there. Have you been to the NT? Most of the state barely even has water and roads, and I suspect building those would be even more difficult if it was managed locally instead of with help from the much larger and better funded federal government.

The voice is very close to a lobby group’s position in Canberra. I can’t remember when Indigenous issues were in the top 3 most important during an election, so what’s stopping the government by just ignoring them?

The voice is something leaders within Australia's indigenous community have asked for, as the next step in reconciling this country with the indigenous nations that have ruled here for tens of thousands of years and have never legally relinquished their authority to the Australian government that summarily took over relatively recently (practically yesterday, in the history of the indigenous Australians).

It's just one small step, and it's not intended to be a silver bullet that fixes everything, and in fact it won't change much at all. But it will improve some small things and more importantly it will signify that we, as a country, care about the broader issue at hand and want to fix it. The symbolism for the voice is very powerful and I will be voting yes to the voice.

Will people in the Northern Territory have their vote counted as if it were a state or just to the total national amount?

National count only.

Am I the only one here who thinks they could’ve made actual change if they became a state (more senators, can contribute to a referendum)?

Possibly, but then we'd have a state with less population than Hobart which raises it's own issues.

The voice is very close to a lobby group’s position in Canberra. I can’t remember when Indigenous issues were in the top 3 most important during an election, so what’s stopping the government by just ignoring them?

Nothing, but that's kind of the point.