Indigenous voice to parliament: On the underdogs Yes campaign with Julian Leeser

The former Liberal frontbencher admits the Yes team are the underdogs in the campaign in the home stretch but on this day he has more worrying things on his mind.

Former Coalition frontbencher Julian Leeser talks with local Andrew while doorknocking in his electorate. Picture: Nikki Short

In the final week before the ­referendum, Julian Leeser is trying to scrape up every last yes vote for the voice, but on this particular Sunday he has something else on his mind.

The Liberal backbencher hasn’t heard from his niece in Israel since Hamas started its attacks and he constantly checks his phone between knocking on doors in his Sydney electorate.

Pressing on, Leeser walks up the driveway of four townhouses in Normanhurst where two women and two dogs are talking and playing.

The Berowra MP has built up a routine for when he knocks on a door: he introduces himself, explains he’s there to talk about the voice referendum and asks gingerly “How are you feeling about the referendum?”

This time, the woman closer to him responds coyly: “I’m voting the same way I did in the same-sex marriage vote.”

There’s a slight pause and Leeser says with a smile: “I don’t know what that means.”

“That’s it, I’m ambiguous,” she says, laughing. “I know what I’m voting. But I do vote for you, so I’ll give you that one.” Then she asks: “What happens if it fails?”

He takes a breath. “Well, I think we’ve all got to take a pause and engage in some deep listening and reflection,” he says.

“I think there needs to be a reconciliation process. Beyond that … we should just take a moment and look at the result and listen to Indigenous people because there’ll be a number of them who’ll feel the pain of the decision.”

Leeser resigned from the ­Coalition frontbench in April in response to the Liberal Party’s opposition to the voice, making him the most high-profile of a few ­defectors from the federal ­Coalition’s position.

Ever since, he’s been campaigning for the Yes vote. But every poll suggests the referendum will go down on Saturday, with the latest Newspoll finding only 34 per cent of voters support the voice.

The kind of interaction he’s just had – where someone professes to vote for him but (probably) against the voice – is not altogether rare, he says. “People who disagree with me have said ‘Look, I understand why you’re doing this, I think it’s right that you do it, but I don’t agree with you’,” he said.

He said the “odd voter” would tell him that they were against the voice and would no longer vote for him because of his position: “I’d be lying if I said otherwise, but it’s pretty much the exception.

“How do I think the campaign’s going at this juncture? I think there’s been a bit of a late, positive move … we have new ­people today who are doorknocking who’ve never doorknocked before.

“I’ve been involved in political campaigns since I was 16, and most of the people … they’ve never done anything political in their lives.”

He knocks on a door and a couple answer it after a lengthy negotiation with a dog to stay back. They tell him they’re voting yes and he asks whether they’d like to volunteer on election day. They don’t seem opposed to the idea.

Walking again, he continues: “I do think it’s tightened. You know, we are the underdogs in this ­campaign.

“It is what it is in that regard.”

Leeser says of the more than 5000 homes he and the Yes campaign volunteers have attended in the Berowra electorate, just over half have indicated they would vote yes.

“The things that make me positive are there’s a good atmosphere, volunteers that just keep coming, the enthusiasm of them.”

A day later, he’s back campaigning, happy and fully focused: his niece has been found safe.