Andrew Bolt’s brutal message for Ray Martin after he slammed the No campaign and urged Aussies to vote Yes

Conservative commentator Andrew Bolt has called out the choice of Ray Martin for a prime-time TV debate on Indigenous Voice in Parliament, describing him as an “aboriginal” elected in “white face”.

Martin sparked controversy after giving a speech at a Yes campaign event in Sydney. During his speech, he criticized the No campaign’s slogan, ‘If you don’t know, vote No’, calling it nonsense.

“What the weird slogan is saying is if you’re a dinosaur or a crackhead who can’t be bothered to read, then vote No,” he said.

Bolt expressed disdain that Martin attended the Channel Seven forum on Sunday night as an Indigenous representative, even though he was chosen as a spokesperson by the Yes23 campaign.

Other Indigenous spokespeople representing different sides of the Voice debate were Senators Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (LNP), Lidia Thorpe (Independent) and Malarndirri McCarthy (Labour).

While Bolt acknowledged that the senators all had relatively recent indigenous ancestry, he said that was not the case for Martin, despite him being officially chosen as the Aboriginal representative for the Po23 campaign.

“Why did Channel 7 add Martin, a surviving white-faced TV presenter from decades ago?” Bolt wrote on Sunday Herald Sun column.

Bolt questioned whether the veteran journalist and TV presenter should count as Indigenous when Martin’s ancestry was almost entirely Irish, apart from an Aboriginal great-grandmother, Bertha.

“To be fair, Martin does not identify as Aboriginal, however his single Aboriginal great-grandfather was important enough for Channel 7 to cast him as an ‘indigenous man,'” Bolt wrote.

Noting the show’s producer’s stated intention that they didn’t want ‘white people talking about’ Indigenous people, Bolt questioned whether Martin was ‘really Aboriginal in any meaningful way?’

This question led Bolt to question the validity of the Indigenous Voice in Parliament.

“Only one of his 16 great-great-grandparents was Aboriginal, so why does that define Martin more than the other 15?” Bolt asked.

“Why does great-great-grandfather privilege him in a debate, or qualify him to be represented by a House of Parliament in the Constitution – unlike anyone of any other ‘race’?”

“What an insult to our individuality to assign people to a race of victims because of a single ancestor 150 years ago or more.”

Looking at the distinguished panel of three elected senators and a famous TV personality, Bolt also questioned whether Indigenous people didn’t already have a ‘voice’.

“Millions and millions of other Australians will never have a voice as loud as any of these Aborigines,” Bolt wrote, saying the debate piled “absurdity upon absurdity”.

“How crazy to divide us by race so crudely that even a Ray Martin can get a voice in the constitution to speak for him, but not for the 97 per cent of Australians who don’t also have a Gara ‘e great-grandmother right,’ Bolt wrote.

The referendum on the constitutional recognition of local people by creating Voice will be held on Saturday.

To pass it, it must receive the approval of the majority of voters, but also win in the majority of states.

Voter polls have delivered some small but bad news for the Po23 campaign for the past month.

A Newspoll published on Sunday shows the proposal will suffer an embarrassing defeat with 58 per cent saying they will vote No against just 34 per cent rising for Yes with 8 per cent undecided.