Anthony Albanese makes a desperate plea to Aussies to Vote YES before vote
Anthony Albanese makes a desperate plea to Aussies to vote YES before voting
The Prime Minister has urged Australians to vote ‘yes’ on the final day of parliament before the country moves to an Indigenous vote referendum.
Anthony Albanese joined Indigenous AFL legend Michael Long on the final leg of his long walk from Melbourne to the nation’s capital to encourage Australians to vote ‘yes’ and enshrine an Indigenous voice in the Constitution.
Mr Albanese said Long’s efforts paralleled Wiradjuri man Jimmy Clements’ 1927 walk from the Brungle Mission in NSW to the former Parliament House to appear uninvited at the building’s opening ceremony.
The Prime Minister has urged Australians to vote ‘yes’ on the final day of parliament before the country moves to a referendum on an Indigenous vote.
“The police tried to remove Clements because he had arrived after such a long walk from Tumut, disheveled and barefoot,” he told reporters on Thursday.
“The crowd stood up and said, ‘No, the indigenous people have a right to be here.’
‘So I say: let us work together with dignity and unity. Of course, every journey is about embracing something different.”
The former AFL player followed the same route he took in 2004 when protesting then-Prime Minister John Howard’s decision to disband the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.
“(Mr Howard) has told Australians to ‘hold the anger’, but this isn’t about anger, it’s about love,” Mr Long told reporters.
“It’s about giving indigenous people power over their destiny so that their culture can be a gift to this country.”
Meanwhile, the ‘no’ case will gain momentum with a keynote speech from an influential senator.
Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is expected to use her speech at the National Press Club to outline an alternative approach to the vote enshrined in the constitution.
Senator Price, former Deputy Mayor of Alice Springs, is advocating for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander recognition in the Constitution and identifying local and regional voices.
Anthony Albanese has joined AFL legend Michael Long on the final leg of his long walk to Canberra
She argues that including an advisory body in the constitution gives three percent of the population an “additional voice” on issues that affect all Australians, destroying equality of citizenship.
And the $33 billion spent on programs to close the gap in Indigenous well-being needs to be monitored to ensure it delivers the greatest benefit, she says.
A bitter debate has raged in parliament in recent days over claims that the ‘No’ campaign is using racism to influence voters.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers accused opposition leader Peter Dutton, who opposes the vote referendum, of trying to “drip more poison down the drain” to reap a political dividend.
Mr Dutton told parliament the prime minister’s vote campaign was “dividing families and our nation”.