Marcia Langton says the government must explain what happens if the Indigenous voice to parliament vote fails

Marcia Langton has urged the Albanese government to lay out what the future holds for Aboriginal Australians in the event of a No vote.

Yes campaigner and key architect of the voice Marcia Langton addresses the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Indigenous leader Marcia Langton has urged the Albanese government to lay out what the future holds for Aboriginal Australians in the event of a No vote for the voice referendum on October 14, fearing it could give governments a mandate to “do nothing and to make our lives worse”.

Declaring this was Australia’s “one chance” to achieve constitutional recognition, leading Yes campaigners joined with Professor Langton on Wednesday in warning they would not work with Peter Dutton on a second “voiceless” referendum if the poll next month failed because it was not what they wanted.

In a major address to the National Press Club 5½ weeks out from the referendum, Professor Langton said the Albanese government should set out an agenda for Indigenous Australians if the poll failed as soon as possible and “before the rabble take over and turn a No vote into a mandate to cause us even further harm”.

“If the government is not inclined to set out the agenda before the vote, then they should do so immediately afterwards and that means they should be prepared now to tell us what the future holds for us,” Professor Langton said.

“Many Indigenous Australians on the front lines of dealing with these problems in towns and cities and communities and outstations and homelands are very worried about the prospect of losing the voice because they already have little to say. And a loss will mean they will have even less.”

Anthony Albanese has said his focus is on winning the referendum and his “plan B” for closing the gap if the referendum fails is to “continue to always do what we can” to reduce the disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Professor Langton said she would not be willing to work with the Opposition Leader on another referendum “should he ever be elected”, saying it would serve no purpose because Indigenous Australians had asked for recognition through a voice to combine symbolic and practical change.

Prominent Liberal Yes campaigner Sean Gordon said the main reason he wouldn’t work with Mr Dutton on symbolic constitutional recognition was because making taxpayers pay twice for two referendums went against Liberal values.

Mr Dutton earlier this week said that, if elected, he would hold a second referendum on constitutional recognition if the Australian people reject next month’s poll, after telling The Australian he would pursue constitutional recognition while legislating local and regional voices.

“Where he (Mr Dutton) falls over – this is his lack of understanding on the issue – is the guarantee. The guarantee is simply, from Indigenous people’s perspective, to ensure there will be a structure set up to give voice to Indigenous people to ensure that when policies and programs are made about us, they seek advice from us … regardless of which party is elected,” Mr Gordon said.

Thomas Mayo, one of Yes23’s chief campaigners, also indicated he wouldn’t work with Mr Dutton by saying recognition had to be practical, not just symbolic: “The urgency (Professor Langton) expresses is shared by all in the Yes campaign. We cannot accept the status quo, which is basically what the No campaign is defending.”

Professor Langton said the Yes camp’s path to success would be through truth-telling, after Indigenous leader Noel Pearson reframed the campaign’s strategy on Tuesday, declaring “a secret weapon” that could yet win the vote would be engaging the soft Nos.

Professor Langton said Australians should understand the lack of progress in closing the gap and it was these facts – such as a 10-year difference in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians – that she would talk about with undecided voters.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has called Mr Pearson’s pitch to The Australian’s subscribers at the first Great Voice Debate a “sharp change of tactics” for the Yes camp.

“Noel Pearson now says that it’s important to answer people’s questions about the voice,” Mr Abbott writes in The Australian on Thursday.

“If only he could. No one can say how the voice will be chosen, what powers it will have, and exactly who can stand for it, because all this would have to be decided after the referendum by the parliament; and then, most likely, further adjudicated by the High Court when a future government’s decision-making displeases some or all of the voice’s members and arguably contravenes an expansively worded whole new chapter in our Constitution.”