Anthony Albanese urged the Voice to Parliament vote to be scrapped to avoid ‘dividing the nation’
Anthony Albanese returned from a series of overseas summits on Monday and told parliament the referendum would go ahead on October 14.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton urged the Prime Minister to scrap the vote to avoid division in the nation.
Mr Dutton asked Mr Albanese to “withdraw his Voice referendum so we can avoid an outcome that hinders reconciliation and divides the nation”.
With support for The Voice plummeting in all opinion polls, Dutton told Albanese: “It is clear that the referendum will not be the moment of unity that the 1967 referendum provided.”
“Australians will be able to make up their minds on that date,” Albanese told parliament.
Governor-General David Hurley issued the referendum note on Monday after an executive council meeting in Canberra.
Overall support has fallen to a new low, with every state except Tasmania set to vote ‘no’ on a constitutionally established Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory body.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (above) signed up for the Voice referendum on October 14, despite declining support for his Yes campaign
A Resolve Political Monitor survey published in Nine newspapers on Monday found that 43 percent of voters supported a plan to enshrine indigenous voices in the constitution, a drop of 20 percentage points from a year ago.
The percentage of Australians in favor of the plan has fallen for the fifth month in a row, with Victoria moving to a majority vote of ‘no’ since the last survey.
A successful referendum requires a yes vote from more than 50 percent of voters in four of the six states.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said there were still many undecided voters who could be convinced to vote ‘Yes’, adding that the purely consultative body with no veto power was ‘a lot less scary than some of the ‘No’ votes campaign. ‘.
Yes23 spokesperson Dean Parkin said the majority of campaigners and volunteers he saw knocking on national government doors were in the ‘Yes’ camp.
“We knew we would be in this position leading up to the final vote,” he said.
‘But it is very clear what we have to do. We need to get out there and have as many conversations as possible between now and the referendum.”
Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie said the government had “failed miserably” in its attempt to sell the positives of the vote and provide details.
But she also dismissed the opposition’s promise to hold a second referendum on constitutional recognition as a “brain fart.”
Nationals leader David Littleproud said the Prime Minister needed to split the issue to avoid dividing the nation, with most people supporting constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
He denied that a failed referendum would send a negative signal to Indigenous Australians, saying it would be seen as a rejection of the Prime Minister’s model.
“Many Indigenous Australians now hold this view and that’s why I think it’s wrong for Indigenous leaders who support ‘Yes’ to make blanket statements about how Indigenous Australians will feel,” Mr Littleproud told reporters in Canberra.
Recent surveys show support for the ‘Yes’ vote is below 40 percent in every state except Victoria (photo, Yes campaigners in Brisbane)
Registrations for postal votes close on October 11.
The electoral roll closes seven days after the summons are issued, meaning people have a week to ensure they are registered.
Hundreds of early voting centers will be available from October 2, with centers in the ACT, NSW, Queensland and South Australia opening a day later for a public holiday.