Leading Yes campaigner Noel Pearson has conceded the Voice to parliament referendum is headed for defeat, saying Australia was a “hard country now”, and nothing seemed to persuade white Australia that the Constitution did not “entirely belong to them”.

In a candid speech to a private function on Monday evening, the Cape York leader criticised “relentless” opposition from News Corporation, took aim at former chief justice Murray Gleeson, and called prominent No campaigners Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Warren Mundine the “front people” of right-wing think tanks.