Indigenous MPs advocating for the No camp must consider their own voices cannot do what a Voice to parliament would, a lead ‘Yes’ campaigner says.
Cape York Partnership founder Noel Pearson acknowledged that there was more work to be done to convince Australians to vote yes as a fresh opinion poll puts the referendum in doubt.
“We need to be at the railway stations, we need to be at the town halls, we need to be meeting people in the malls and we need to be appealing to the better angels of the Australian nature,” he told Sky News.
On the problems facing the Indigenous Australians and closing the gaps, Mr Pearson conceded that on many of the issues he and lead No campaign leaders, senator Jacinta Price and Warren Mundine, were in “furious agreement”.
But where they diverge is on the solutions.
“(Senator Price) just doesn’t believe that a structure like the Voice is going to be a solution. But the problem is, she and any other Indigenous parliamentarian, cannot fulfil the functions of a Voice, no matter how good they are,” Mr Pearson told Sky News.
“We have had a lot of Indigenous politicians now, not at least in the Northern Territory. We’ve had 20 plus years of politicians representing communities.
“People like me and Warren (Mundine), Warren says ‘We already got a Voice, I’ll speak for them’. Well there’s a limit to that.”
Asked what the Voice would look like, Mr Pearson pointed to the work of Indigenous academics Marcia Langton and Tom Calma, and the model of local and regional voices feeding into the national advisory.
Speaking on the ABC, deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley agreed with the local and regional model but did not want the Voice to be tied to constitutional recognition.
Ms Ley renewed the opposition’s call for the government to split constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians and legislate the Voice instead.
“Unnecessary bureaucracy would be associated with a constitutionally enshrined voice. We’ve said that’s risky. We’ve said it’s unknown. We’ve said it’s divisive. And we’ve said it’s permanent,” she said.
The No camp has argued a constitutionally enshrined body is legally risky and have questioned whether the Voice would be able to advise the government on AUKUS, or to change Australia Day.
Mr Pearson said such suggestions were “lurid misrepresentations”.
“I can’t see how a nuclear submarine is a matter relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,” he told Sky News.
“Who‘s going to listen to them if they say we need dot dot paintings on the side of the new nuclear submarine.”
It comes as a fresh opinion poll published in the Nine Newspapers on Sunday suggested the Voice could be headed for defeat, with a majority of voters in NSW suggesting they would vote No for the first time.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this week said the Yes campaign needed to be stronger in putting its case to voters. He indicated an election campaign style blitz to win over undecided voters would take place in the lead up to the vote – expected around mid-October.
Mr Pearson warned a protracted campaign could be “too long” and urged voters to not use the referendum as a mechanism to send a message to Mr Albanese.
“I don’t want to burden the public discourse for three or four months on this.”
But he acknowledged the Voice would only succeed if the ‘Yes’ camp ran a positive campaign.
“It’s got to be about friendship. That’s how we’re going to win. We’re not going to win with trolling,” Mr Pearson said in response Mr Mundine had contemplated suicide due to online abuse.