Indigenous voice to parliament will fix ‘unfinished business’

Less than 48 hours ahead of the referendum, a collective of First Nations leaders have issued their last-ditch plea for an Indigenous voice.

Yes campaigners have mounted a last-ditch plea to vote Yes to an Indigenous voice, describing it as “the opportunity to finish the ­unfinished business of our ­Constitution”.

A collective of Indigenous leaders, including Assistant Indigenous Affairs Minister Malarndirri McCarthy and Yes 23 campaign director Thomas Mayo, joined about 100 Yes supporters at Melbourne’s Federation Square on Thursday to call for change.

At the gathering, Senator McCarthy spoke of the contributions of Yorta Yorta activist William Cooper, who led a protest against Nazi attacks on Jewish people in Germany from his home to the German consulate in 1938.

“I do call on the wisdom, and the strength of the spirits and our ancestors who have gone long before us to continue to be with us on this journey with all of us here,” she said. “He walked to that consulate, wanting to seek fairness and justice. He petitioned the king for First Nation’s people. He called, even then, in the late 1930s for a voice.

“I tell Australians, you have the opportunity to finish the unfinished business of our Constitution. You have the opportunity with three letters – Y, E, S – to include First Nations people in the history of this Constitution, of 65,000 years of history we can deliver to the Constitution that will belong to all Australians.”

Yes campaigners in Clearview last week. Picture: Matt Loxton

The NT senator said there was “no doubt” the majority of First Nations people wanted a voice to executive government and parliament. “Many of you, most of you, are going to wake up on the 15th of October and your lives won’t change,” she said. “On the 16 of October, on the 17th of Oct­ober, your lives will not change. But for 3 to 4 per cent of the population, for First Nations people, this voice matters.”

The appeal comes as the latest Newspoll – exclusively for The Australian – revealed support for an Indigenous voice weakened into the final campaign week.