‘Two weeks to rise to the occasion’: Chalmers’ message as Yes campaign faces defeat

With a two-week sprint until the referendum, Treasurer Jim Chalmers says there is still time to change minds in Queensland about the Voice.

The Yes campaign has a two-week sprint left to convince Queenslanders to “rise to the occasion” and back a Voice to Parliament, Treasurer Jim Chalmers declared at a rally with Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson.

Mr Pearson said there were indigenous communities in Queensland which had significant issues and that the Voice was the way to address them by giving advice from the people on the ground to decision makers in Canberra.

Polling has consistently that the Yes campaign has been losing ground since at least April, with the strongest no vote expected to come from Queensland.

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Indigenous leader Noel Pearson during the Yes launch at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

But Mr Chalmers, speaking at the rally held at the University of Queensland on Friday, said he was aware that there was a lot of work to be done, but that there was time in the next two weeks to convince undecided voters to cast a Yes ballot.

“A ‘no’ vote is a cul-de-sac for this country, a cul-de-sac of division and disappointment. A ‘yes’ vote is a highway to a better future,” he said.

“We’ve got just over two weeks now to sprint to the finish, to rise to this occasion, to make the most of this moment.

“This window of opportunity has opened and it will close again. And we don’t want to see this left to our kids and their kids in some kind of generational buck pass that will sell our country short and our people short.”

Mr Pearson said Queensland already held an example of how giving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people representation to drive better outcomes.

Indigenous leader Noel Pearson and Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

He said the Queensland Government, since the Beattie era, had the director-general and Minister of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, visit remote communities and go through an agenda of issues with them.

“What the Voice brings is the Commonwealth, to sit down. And so you‘ll have the local government, the Commonwealth Government and the Queensland Government sitting down with the community in that spot on the ground in Aurukun, dealing with Aurukun business,” Mr Pearson said.

“It will be an advisory committee – it will give advice.

“The people on the other side of the table need not heed the advice, but I am sure that when the ideas are right, when they‘re sensible, when they’re innovative, the people listening will take them on.”

He said the Voice was a way to solve the “many problems” faced by indigenous Australians in Queensland.

“We can get to solve them, we can address them. I‘m so concerned about their future as for Indigenous people all over the country. This is our chance,” Mr Pearson said.

“We have got a fortnight to put our utmost energies into this vote.”

Originally published as ‘Two weeks to rise to the occasion’: Chalmers’ message as Yes campaign faces defeat