Anthony Albanese’s message for Aussies planning to vote NO in the Indigenous Voice referendum

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says a ‘no’ vote in the indigenous vote referendum will be an endorsement of failed policies.

The ‘yes’ and ‘no’ camps have revealed the arguments they will use in a bid to win over voters for their respective parties in the referendum, to be held between October and December.

The Australian Electoral Commission published the formal ‘yes’ and ‘no’ cases for the proposed constitutional amendment online on Tuesday.

Opinion polls show support for the change is waning, but Mr Albanese said there was a strong case for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vote.

He pointed to the eight-year difference in life expectancy and figures showing that young Indigenous men were more likely to go to prison than to go to college.

“We have four of the 19 Closing the Gap targets currently being met,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

“We need to do better – if Australia votes ‘no’ it means it will continue to do things the same way.

“If you keep doing things the same way, you can expect the same results – we have to do things differently and we have to do that by showing respect.”

Asking people to vote for a ‘better future for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and all Australians’, the ‘yes’ cause has the endorsement of Indigenous stars including former tennis world number 1 Evonne Goolagong Cawley, the NRL’s Johnathan Thurston and AFL great Eddie Bets.

Thurston said Indigenous young people “deserve the chance to be their best.”

“I work closely with schoolchildren in the Yarrabah community in Queensland,” he wrote.

“I have seen the obstacles they face. No one understands that better than their local community.

“Giving them a say will help more of our children reach their potential. That’s what the voice is about.’

Ms Goolagong said voting ‘yes’ was an opportunity to ‘help the next generation chase their dreams’.

“Let’s seize this moment with both hands,” she wrote.

The ‘no’ case claims the vote proposal is beyond recognition and represents the ‘biggest change to our constitution in our history’.

“It is legally risky, with unknown consequences. It would be divisive and permanent,” it said.

“If you don’t know, vote no.”

Citing a number of former judges, the main arguments describe the vote as risky, lacking in detail, divisive and impractical for Indigenous Australians.

“This vote has not been road tested,” and there is no comparable constitutional body anywhere in the world, it said.

“A centralized voice threatens to overlook the needs of regional and remote communities.”

‘No’ campaign advocate Warren Mundine said he was ‘quite comfortable’ with the wording of the document, but there were a few minor things wrong with it.

Mundine said the prime minister’s decision not to announce the date of the referendum next month showed he was looking for some ‘breathing room’ for the ‘yes’ campaign.

“We need more detail and better analysis on how this (constitutional change) is going to be the answer to all things,” he told the ABC.

Liberal MP Julian Leeser, who left the party’s front bench over his support for the vote, said there were those in the ‘no’ camp who diverted attention from the main arguments.

“Many of the arguments we hear today in the ‘no’ case are echoes of arguments we’ve heard other times in our history,” he told ABC Radio.

“Some arguments mirror arguments against the Federation from over 120 years ago.”