Anthony Albanese has suggested the media has a “responsibility” not to confuse voters about support for the voice among First Nations people, arguing that Indigenous critics are outnumbered by supporters.
The prime minister told ABC Coffs Coast radio that Indigenous leaders have been campaigning for the voice “for a long period of time” as their preferred model of constitutional recognition.
The comments come as yes campaigners urge Australians not to lose faith or panic after lagging opinion polls suggest the no side may be hitting the lead, four months out from the referendum.
Albanese was asked if he can understand why in the context of voters “hoping that there is Indigenous leadership on the referendum” that the “broader community is confused” given the prominence of Indigenous Australians in the no camp, including the independent senator Lidia Thorpe and the Nationals senator Jacinta Price.
The prime minister replied: “The media have a responsibility, frankly, you named the two people and you could name Warren Mundine as well who are supporting no from different perspectives.”
Albanese said Thorpe believed the voice “doesn’t go far enough” while Price and Mundine have criticised it from a “very conservative political view”.
“But if you look at Aunty Pat Anderson, you look at the Dodsons, you look at Noel Pearson, Marcia Langton, Tom Calma, the senior Australian of the year, all of the northern land councils, the representative bodies in the Torres Strait.
“You look at all of these Indigenous leaders, [they] are all campaigning very strongly as they have for a long period of time for constitutional recognition.”
“This is something that was promised and talked about by the Howard government last century. If we don’t recognise Indigenous Australians in our constitution now, when will we?”
“This is unfinished business and I believe it will be a moment of national unity just like the apology to stolen generations was after it was opposed by some people as well for a long period of time.
“When it got done, it did lift up our nation, it was positive and no one now says that was the wrong thing to do, and I think that constitutional recognition and a yes vote for the referendum will be the same.”
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has called on Labor to scrap the referendum for an Indigenous voice in the constitution in favour of symbolic recognition, despite Indigenous Australians asking for a voice in the Uluru statement from the heart.
Earlier, the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, noted that despite results of the polls the “referendum is a few months away”.
“We always understood that the referendum would be a contest,” he told Radio National. “There’s no guarantee in the outcome and we’ve never imagined that there would be and we’ve always thought that there is going to need to be a significant campaign to see the voice carried and I’m confident that that campaign will be done in an expert way.”
Asked about the possibility of calling the referendum off, Marles said responding to the Uluru statement from the heart was a “commitment that our government has made”.
“We’re committed to doing it … the Uluru statement of the heart has come to government seeking this and that’s a very solemn but also generous step that the Indigenous leadership of this country have taken.”
The Liberal Senate leader, Simon Birmingham, one of at least three Liberal moderates to oppose locking in against the voice in shadow cabinet, said on Tuesday that he was “disappointed that the country finds itself in this situation” when asked about the latest poll results.
“I wish that the government had been able and had done more in the earlier stages to achieve or pursue bipartisanship,” he told ABC News Breakfast.
Birmingham also reiterated that he did not “intend to actively campaign in the referendum” despite the Coalition vowing to oppose it.
“I think you can hear from my answer there, that I am, in some ways conflicted and think this is a very difficult situation the country has been put in, that we have got a question before a proposed change,” he told Radio National.
