Australians need to put fair ahead of scare when casting their votes in the Voice referendum, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged.
Despite recent polling showing reduced support for the proposal, the federal government is on track to hold the referendum in the last quarter of 2023.
“This is a very simple proposition to recognise Indigenous Australians in our Constitution, in our founding document, and it’s time that we did that,” Mr Albanese told Sky News on Sunday while accusing opponents of mounting scare campaigns
“I believe most Australians will accept that … It’s not a complex proposition, it doesn’t change any of the ways that we are governed, it just provides for the opportunity for Indigenous people to have a say in matters that affect them,” he continued.
Business groups, faith organisations, sporting bodies and left-wing activist group GetUp have already thrown their support behind the Voice.
GetUp will launch its #WriteYes campaign in Cairns on Sunday and hold a similar event in Alice Springs on Wednesday.
“We’re really in a historic moment,” GetUp’s First Nations justice campaign director Amy Gordon said.
‘Opportunity to build momentum’
“And it’s not just because we’re going to a referendum but because this is a moment where the whole country is talking about First Nations justice and this is a really incredible opportunity to build momentum.”
Mr Albanese said he wanted Australians to vote on the facts, not fearmongering.
He compared the upcoming referendum to parliament’s apology to the stolen generations in 2008, which opponents claimed would be divisive and result in large compensation claims.
“We know that it was a moment of national unity, the scare campaigns weren’t right … it didn’t have an impact on most Australians except they felt better about who we were as a country,” he said.
“If we recognise Indigenous Australians in our Constitution, people will look back and say, ‘why didn’t we do it earlier?’, just like people say why didn’t we make the apology earlier.”
The Voice to parliament will be able to advise parliament and the government on issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
But the federal Coalition continues to argue the Voice will do nothing to help Indigenous Australians while delivering “worse outcomes for all Australians”.
The referendum’s success depends on majority support across the country and in four of six Australian states.
Housing Minister Julie Collins said while she already worked with Indigenous leaders on housing challenges in remote communities, the Voice would provide an opportunity to increase advice to government.
“At the moment, obviously I can’t speak and talk to every single Indigenous (person) in the country, so (the Voice) would centralise that and provide us with very good advice on how do we close the gap,” she told the ABC Insiders program.
- The question to be put in the referendum: “A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Do you approve this proposed alteration?”
-with AAP
