Albanese rallies referendum case We can convince our fellow Australians to vote yes’
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese emphasised his commitment to convincing Australians to vote Yes in the Voice to parliament referendum while presenting at the country’s biggest First Nations festival.
Albanese was met with loud applause as he delivered his keynote speech at the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land, where he told the crowd, “We can convince our fellow Australians to vote Yes” in the upcoming referendum.
“We can get this done together and we can get this done now, this year. Because if not ask, who? And if not now, when?” he said.
“In this decisive moment, each of us holds an equal responsibility, and each of us has an equal opportunity. Yes, we can make history together.”
An animated Albanese urged Australians to work to get others to vote in favour of the Constitutional change.
“We know that most Australians have never got out their Constitution as bedside reading, and that’s why the campaign is there to be won – because what will decide that referendum is those conversations: the respectful, genuine conversations Australians have with one another, engaging as neighbours, colleagues and friends.”
Albanese said his government would work to make it clear to Australians what voting ‘no’ would mean ahead of the referendum.
“It is more of the same. Not only rejecting the opportunity to do better, but accepting that what we have is somehow good enough,” he said.
“An eight-year gap in life expectancy in the land of the fair go. The suicide rate twice as high in the lucky country. Shocking rates of disease in a nation with some of the world’s best healthcare.”
Earlier, Albanese told Weekend Today if Australians choose to vote no in the referendum because they don’t understand the significance of the campaign, there will be no change.
“I think Australians will ask themselves, how would I feel if it was the case that if I had a daughter in childbirth, she was more likely to have issues if she was Indigenous than if she was non-Indigenous?” he said.
“If I had a son, a teenage son, he is more likely to go to jail than to go to university.
“These are the sort of issues that we need to deal with.”
Albanese said the Voice to parliament will lift all Australians up and close the gap for better outcomes across sectors from health to education.
He said the question that will be asked in the referendum is a simple one as Australia is the only country not to constitutionally recognise their First Peoples.
“When we look at all of the former colonies there’s only one that stands out as not giving acknowledgement to First Peoples,” he said.
“And that is all it does, is recognise Indigenous Australians in our nation’s founding document.
“This place wasn’t empty in 1788.”
He pointed out that the Voice won’t only include constitutional recognition but will include an advisory body – although it will have no funding, program or veto responsibilities – the parliament will be encouraged to listen to First Nations people.
The prime minister is yet to confirm the date the referendum will be held, with speculation it will be October 14, saying it will be held in the last quarter of the year.
“I’ll be announcing in coming weeks what the date is,” he said.
It comes after the prime minister gave an impassioned plea at Garma Festival yesterday – a year after he revealed the government would hold a referendum on the Voice to parliament.
“There’s been some suggestion that this is not the right time,” Albanese said.
“I say, 122 years after Federation, half a century after the referendum in which Indigenous Australians were counted, more than a decade after extensive processes were established… if not now, when?”
