‘It will go down’: John Howard’s big call on the Voice

John Howard slams the Voice to parliament and predicts a dismal result for the Yes campaign when it goes to the ballot box.

Australia’s second longest prime minister has made a bold prediction about the Indigenous Voice to parliament, arguing it will fail dismally when Aussies vote on it in a referendum later this year.

The federal government plans to hold a referendum in a few months seeking to enshrine an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament in the constitution.

John Howard, who was PM between 1996-2007 told The Australian on his 84th birthday that he thinks it “will go down significantly”.

“That’s my sense,” he said.

Read more: Why Howard thinks the Voice will fail

Mr Howard said campaigners of the Voice have not spelt out to Australians how the advisory body will lead to better health, education and social outcomes for Indigenous people.

He said the Yes campaign had displayed an “unwillingness” to explain what’s involved.

“Shouldn’t we just be sitting down talking to each other?” he said.

“Not about the Voice, not about reparations, not about treaties, but just talking about how to lift up Aboriginal people, and put them in the mainstream of the community, finding out ways of doing it. It’s going to be hard. It’s going to take a long time. It’s going to be less successful than we would like. But why are we doing this to ourselves?”

He predicts the Voice if it succeeded would “create a new cockpit of conflict about how to help Indigenous people”.

“I don’t think the Voice is going to produce anything other than regular stand-offs between what the Voice is asking for and what the government of the day is willing to do with a fair dollop of constitutional adventurism thrown into the mix. That’s what I think will happen.”

He also lambasted Anthony Albanese’s pitch to voters describing him as uttering “banal generalisations” without any level of details.

Mr Howard also expressed concerns in the interview that a Voice would prevent the Commonwealth intervening even when poor governance in the Northern Territory requires it.

John Howard predicts the Voice will fail ‘significantly’. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

“The implication (of Voice advocates) is that if you do this (bring in the Voice), all the problems will be solved,” he said.

“Now all the problems are never going to be solved, but a lot of them would be solved and a lot more quickly if we just had ­ good, competent government. But we haven’t had that in the Northern Territory.”

Mr Howard, at his offices, in Martin Place, Sydney. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Australians will be asked later this year the following question: “A proposed law: to alter the constitution to recognise the first peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice, do you approve of this proposed alteration?”

The Albanese government has said Australians will vote in the national poll sometime between October and December.

Mr Howard holds young girl and speaks to locals during a tour of the NT Aboriginal community of Wadeye, south west of Darwin.

Some Yes supporters have urged for the referendum to be delayed or even called off as polls show support plummeting.

A poll by Resolve Political Monitor over the weekend shows a majority of NSW voters are now supporting the No campaign.

The No campaign, according to polls, also has a majority in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.

For a referendum to be successful, the Yes vote must receive a majority of voters across a majority of states.