When Australians go to the polls on October 14 to vote for or against Indigenous Voice, many will cast their vote for the first time in a referendum.
But for 99-year-old Doug Peterson, Saturday will be his 27th referendum. Only six were successful in his lifetime, and unlike The Voice, all received bipartisan support.
From his residential aged care facility in Upper Mount Gravatt, in Queensland’s anti-Voice heartland, Mr Peterson is doing everything he can to get a constitutionally enshrined Aboriginal advisory council in place.
The senior Yes campaigner made a scathing critique of the opposition to the Voice in an interview with Daily Mail Australia, describing the No campaign’s tactics as ‘shameful’.
“I run around on a motorized scooter with Yes on it,” he said. “I can’t walk, so I do what I can from my chair.”
For 99-year-old Doug Peterson, Saturday will be the 27th time he has voted in a referendum
About 100 residents live in Mr. Peterson’s complex, and he never misses an opportunity to have discussions about The Voice.
‘Everyone knows me… some of them here don’t want to talk to me about it at all, they just say ‘I vote no’ and that’s it. That’s difficult.’
Mr. Peterson said his biggest frustration during his campaign is that so many people who plan to vote no are doing so for “the wrong reasons.”
“They say they vote no because they belong to a political party, or they use indirect information that is simply not true,” he said.
“I couldn’t believe it (when they told me). This isn’t politics. These are human beings; their lives.
‘It baffles me, after all these years, that there is talk of astonishingly inaccurate furphys being told.’
The most damaging, he says, is the unwavering fear that the Voice will open a way for “people to come and claim my house.”
“Nonsense,” said Mr. Peterson. “Furphys.
“Promote the product, promote the truth, and then leave it to people to make their own decisions.”
From his residential aged care facility in Upper Mount Gravatt, in Queensland’s anti-Voice heartland, Mr Peterson is doing everything he can to get this across the line.
Mr. Peterson said his biggest frustration during his campaign is that so many people who plan to vote no are doing so for “the wrong reasons.”
Between now and next weekend, Mr. Peterson will spend as much time as possible raising awareness about the Voice.
It’s an uphill battle in Queensland, which was largely seen in early polls as the hardest state to influence and the most anti-vote.
But Mr. Peterson says that after a lifetime of seeing First Nations people treated with “contempt…
like second-class citizens,” he feels compelled to try.
‘I’m going to hand out pamphlets and put them in people’s mailboxes. Anyone who wants to talk to me, I will initiate it.
I also have the chair with the Yes banners,” he said.
He was first drawn to Indigenous Affairs as a young, enthusiastic teacher.
He applied for a permit to teach in a remote indigenous community and has never been able to forget the sadness and despair within the community.
“It was like a prison,” he said.
Between now and October 14, Mr. Peterson will spend as much time as possible raising awareness about the Voice
‘I could not believe it. I was told not to take any pictures or talk to anyone. The Aboriginal people themselves had no voice. They weren’t allowed to do anything.’
Mr. Peterson acknowledges that his campaign efforts undoubtedly misled some people. He doesn’t care either.
He says the Voice is a proposition that is too important to stand idly by and be a wallflower.
Even with his own family, Peterson never misses an opportunity to talk about the referendum.
When his five children and 16 grandchildren come to visit him, he reminds them of all the reasons why he will vote Yes.
‘We have those conversations and they know where I stand. They have their own opinions and will form their own opinions, but I say yes.”
Australians will go to the polls on October 14 for the first referendum in 24 years
And he’s hopeful that some good will come from his work, like a small piece of the 37,000-strong volunteer network that Yes23 recruited during the campaign.
Despite poor polling (the Essential poll has support for The Voice at 43 percent, while Newspoll says it’s closer to 36 percent), Peterson says the campaign is going well in practice.
“I’ve seen a lot of improvement in the number of people voting ‘Yes,'” he said.
“It’s a bit late in development.”
Asked whether the campaign was well managed from a political perspective, Mr. Peterson said just one word: “no.”
But, he says, the campaign itself has developed despite the setbacks and performed “excellently.”
‘The people, the people have done an excellent job.’
The Prime Minister has toured Australia to promote the Yes vote