Australia may lose its only chance for indigenous constitutional recognition if the referendum on the voice is defeated later this year, the minister for Indigenous Australians has told a yes vote event in Sydney.
“If we miss this moment, we may never get it again,” Linda Burney told a packed Sydney Town Hall on Wednesday night.
“Referendums are rare. Look at what happened to the campaign for a republic after [19]99: 24 years have passed, and there has been very little progress.”
But, despite slipping support in opinion polls and a fractious political debate, Burney said she remained confident that Australians would, ultimately, vote yes.
“This is our moment… to move this country forward together, and we have to grasp it with both hands”.
Burney said two fundamental reasons underpinned the rationale for a ‘yes’ vote on the voice: one, that it was what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – not politicians – had requested as part of the Uluru Statement in 2017, and secondly; that the ‘gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is not closing fast enough.
“The voice won’t fix every problem overnight,” Burney said, “but it will make a lasting practical difference over the long-term.
“A practical difference that will improve people’s lives.”
Burney argued that, for too long, governments had made policies “for First Nations people, not with First Nations people.
“More of the same isn’t good enough. We have to do better.”
The forum, hosted by the city of Sydney, was entitled, “Why the Voice to Parliament is Essential for all Australians”.
Bagaarrmugu-Guggu Yalanji leader, Noel Pearson, said formal acknowledge of ancient Australia in the modern nation-state was vital for the reconciliation of the nation: “the unfinished project of mutual recognition”.
He said the referendum represented an opportunity to acknowledge the inequities and injustices of previous generations, as well as secure a more harmonious nation for future Australian generations.
“Our history is replete with shame … and pride … failure and achievement, fear and love, cruelty and kindness, conflict and comity, mistake and brilliance, folly and glory. We will not shy from that truth.
“We owe our ancestral dead and unborn descendants: we can, and we will find in ourselves, the better angels of our natures.”
Yes campaigner and author Thomas Mayo, a Kaurareg Aboriginal, Kalkalgal and Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man, told the forum “our people want to be heard”.
“Over 80% of Indigenous people are voting yes, so we want you to vote yes with us.”
Mayo said debate over the voice – in particular bad faith, knowingly false arguments against the proposal – had increased incidents of racism across the country.
“But we cannot let them stop us from expressing ourselves.”
The Albanese Labor government was elected in May 2022 with a commitment to put the voice to a national referendum in its first term of government.
The Morrison government had also backed a referendum, but bipartisanship on the issue splintered following the election: the National party opposed the voice last November, while the Liberals decided to reject it in April this year.
Support for the voice in public opinion polls has declined from above 60% last year to about 50/50 currently, on average.
The most recent Guardian Essential poll found 47% of respondents in favour of the constitutional change, 43% opposed, and 10% who said they were unsure.
A date for the voice referendum has not been set, with the prime minister reiterating this week the poll would be held “between October and December” this year.
Australians will be asked to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the question: “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?”.
In order for the referendum to succeed, it must win a “double majority”: a majority of voters nationally, as well as being carried in a majority of states (four of Australia’s six states).
