Failure in referendum will not leave a nation divided

Anthony Albanese made an important but obvious point on Tuesday when he said that when the votes are tallied in the voice to parliament referendum, the decision of the people must be respected. Asked on ABC radio how he would bring the nation together, he said: “We’ll do that, firstly, by accepting the outcome of the referendum.”

With just over one week to go until polling day, it is clear the way in which the referendum has been prosecuted has opened old wounds and left the community deeply divided about what is the correct way forward. Many people on both sides are resentful at being put into the position that they have. Opinion polling shows support for the Yes campaign is not defined by political preference, with strong opposition across the board. There is a clear divide between younger and older voters, with younger voters more prepared to vote Yes. It is also clear from polling that support for the voice is weaker in regional areas than it is in metropolitan centres. If these things turn out to be true on polling day and the voice is defeated, it will be reasonable to conclude that the Prime Minister, who represents one of the most progressive inner-city seats in Australia’s biggest city, was out of touch and misjudged the mood of the nation when he made a strident commitment to implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full in his acceptance speech after winning government for the ALP, having garnered only about one-third of the vote.

A failure to secure bipartisan support for the referendum question has resulted in recriminations throughout the campaign. Voice proponents who claim that defeat will diminish the nation in the eyes of the international community have pushed to see this happen. Marcia Langton and Tom Calma joined other academics to write in world-leading medical journal The Lancet that the ­referendum campaign has tapped into “a deep well of historical racism that originated on the Australian frontier when Indigenous peoples ‘were violently dispossessed from their lands by the British’.” This is an unfair characterisation of a referendum debate that has served to highlight existing failings and a demand for a proper explanation of what is at stake. Voters clearly do not accept Mr Albanese’s assurances that this is a modest proposal and that the details will be worked out later. As editor-at-large Paul Kelly wrote on Wednesday, the voice will become a fundamental arm of Australian governance and it will have both constitutional and political identity and authority.

The broad debate has shown how close the aspirations of both sides really are. No one has argued against improving the living conditions and life expectancy of the nation’s Indigenous communities. What has been missing has been detail on how the voice will make things better. There is wide acceptance that had the referendum confined itself to giving constitutional recognition to the long and proud history of Indigenous Australians, the proposal would have achieved almost universal support.

The fact support for the referendum has slipped in the polls from clear majority support to a position that suggests it could fail in a majority of states and on a majority of votes confirms the fault lies in the poor consultation and conflicted delivery of exactly what it was trying to achieve. Strong support for constitutional recognition dispels the nonsense that whatever the result Australia will be divided forever or that the nation has turned its back on reconciliation. Throughout the campaign, we have declared our support for constitutional recognition and for Indigenous communities to be involved in decision-making. As the ones calling for change, the Yes campaign must convince voters everywhere that it has the right approach. The clear evidence to date is that the remedy being offered by Mr Albanese, against all counsel, is coming up short.