The Voice to Parliament campaign was botched from day one | Paul Starick

A Voice to Parliament might have solved huge problems but we’ll never know because the campaign was cocked up from day one, writes Paul Starick.

A Voice to Parliament might have solved the deep-seated problems of Indigenous people, closing the gap on health, education and economic disparities.

But it seems almost certain we will never know. A slew of opinion polls, plus The Advertiser’s Voicewagen listening tour of South Australia, all indicate an overwhelming No vote on Saturday.

The Yes campaign, spearheaded by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, sharpened its messaging in the crucial final week, finally spelling out simply and concisely the argument for a Voice delivering practical benefits, without frustrating and overpowering parliament or governments.

But Mr Albanese’s final pitch at an Adelaide Central Market press conference on Friday morning starkly demonstrated how the Yes campaign has been mugged by the cost-of-living crisis, then drowned out in the crucial last week by horrific violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Mr Albanese delivered an impressive and impassioned opening speech, neatly summarising how a non-binding committee can better advise governments about measures to tackle appalling disadvantage, making life better for three per cent of Australians without detracting from the lives of the other 97 per cent.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media at the Adelaide Central Market on Friday to make his final pitch to the people of South Australia for the Yes vote. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

But almost every subsequent question was posed to Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong, about 19 Australians trapped in the Gaza hellhole, including an Adelaide family of four.

If Constitutional recognition of First Nations people through a Voice is rejected, this will be yet more evidence that the campaign’s timing, strategy and tactics have been cocked up. These blunders started from the moment of Mr Albanese’s election-night victory speech.

In just the third sentence, he leapt ahead of the Australian public’s expectations and committed to “the Uluru Statement from the Heart, in full”.

Having delivered this surprise, he garnered some positive momentum.

Rather than capitalise on this feel-good factor, though, the Yes campaign dawdled into a referendum held too late, with insufficient argument to convince voters of the Voice’s practical benefits.

Rather than hold a referendum in late 2022, surfing a wave of positive sentiment, Mr Albanese waited another year and didn’t take the extra time to provide any real detail of the Voice’s operations, make-up or ambit.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese helps plug in some power at a market stall while visiting the Adelaide Central Market on Friday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

Instead, the Yes campaign wandered lemming-like toward an increasingly inevitable defeat, sheeting home blame to the Opposition for politicising the referendum and spewing misinformation.

There are some parallels to be drawn with the catastrophic re-election campaign waged by Steven Marshall’s state Liberal government in 2022. If Mr Marshall had been able to go to the polls a year earlier, he probably would have won. Instead, he was assailed by the onslaught of Covid-19 into SA and selfdestructed by an dilettantish campaign.

State Labor seized on a paramedics’ pay dispute to heighten fears of ambulances not turning up in time for Covid-19 patients. The No campaign has stoked fear about changes to Australia Day, financial reparations and land grabs.

These messages have gained traction because millions of Australians are deeply worried about their household budgets. People are worried about putting food on their tables when costs of housing, petrol, electricity, gas, education, health, insurance and just about everything else continue to rise.

Nobody can doubt Mr Albanese’s good intentions, nor that he has recognised the immense financial pain being felt by many Australians.

He has soldiered on until the end, as have other decent and principled people backing the Yes campaign, such as ultra-marathon runner Pat Farmer.

Barring a last-minute voter surge, the Yes case appears doomed to a defeat similar to the 1999 republic referendum.

The campaign has struggled to overcome the inherent contradiction of a Voice being a simple proposition with little power, yet one that can deliver transformative change for Australia’s First Nations people by closing the gap on immense disadvantage.

Originally published as The Voice to Parliament campaign was botched from day one | Paul Starick