Generational divide: Gen X and baby boomers set to kill the Yes vote but under 26 voters back change

The PM has pleaded with Aussies to join hands “in the spirit of reconciliation” as a new poll underlines the huge generational divide over the referendum.

Anthony Albanese has pleaded with Australians to join hands “in the spirit of reconciliation” as a new poll underlines the huge generational divide over the referendum.

As early voting begins for the Voice proposal, new polls have revealed there’s only one age group of voters that are overwhelmingly backing the proposal.

Younger voters are in favour of the Voice by a clear majority with 60 per cent of Gen Z votes backing the change.

Gen Z include voters aged 18 to 26. 

But according to the research even Gen Y voters or Millennials aged under 40 are divided over the Voice.

An analysis of recent polls conducted by research group RedBridge suggests that only 45 per cent of Millennials aged under 40s are voting Yes.

But support plunges sharply among Gen X voters with just 33 per cent planning on voting Yes.

The voting date is fast approaching. Picture: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

The result is even worse among baby boomers with just 28 per cent backing the change.

Redbridge pollster Kos Samaras said the results underlined a huge generational divide over the Voice — with support evaporating amongst older voters.

“It’s become an inner urban thing. You go into the inner suburbs and there’s lots of support for the Voice. That’s in areas where the politics of identity are popular,’’ he said.

But Mr Samaras suggested the further you drove outside of the inner suburbs the less engaged voters were with the referendum.

“No one’s interested. They are not animated by it,’’ he said.

“The biggest mistake is that they (the Yes side) didn’t make it about a common bond. They had that (advertisement) with the young boy but they should have had that from day one. It should’ve been about inclusion.

“The problem is they’ve been saying vote for this as it will provide an extra layer of government. It sounds like the politics of segregation.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese campaigned in Victoria today insisting that the No case is based on “a great big fear campaign about things that have nothing to do with this referendum”.

“We’ve had a whole lot of disinformation out there,’’ he said.

Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. Picture: NCA Newswire / Nicki Connolly

“I was quite shocked by Anthony Mundine’s comments, for example, about fighting someone in the Yes campaign and the fact that Warren Mundine thought that that was okay to back in those comments.

“What we actually need is to come together in the spirit of reconciliation. That’s the spirit that has led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. 

“There is nothing to fear from this campaign.”

Mr Albanese said he was staying positive about the referendum outcome.

“I’ll continue to be positive. I’ll respect the views that Australians have,’’ he said.

“Everyone has one vote in this referendum, but I certainly will appeal to the facts. I’ll continue to go back to what the question is before the Australian people.

“And if people focus on that, I think overwhelmingly people will vote Yes. And when people wake up on October the 15th, they will feel the same way with the Yes vote that they did after the apology to Stolen Generations or after the marriage equality vote. All the fear campaigns will have no substance.”

“No one loses from this proposition,” he added.

Mr Albanese said the outcome of a Yes vote was simply about recognising First Nation Australian peoples in the country’s constitution.

“Something that should have happened 122 years ago,” he said. “But if not now, when are we going to make this necessary change?”

“We remain the only colony that has not done that in our nation’s founding document, and it is time that it was done.”

Mr Albanese said the second change would be the establishment of a committee to advise on matters affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, which Mr Albanese called “a gracious request” made by the majority of Indigenous Australians.

“That’s what this referendum is,” he said. “An opportunity to seize the future; to recognise the great privilege we have of sharing this continent with the oldest continuous culture on Earth.”