Anthony Albanese says one-on-one conversations will be key to a Yes victory for an Indigenous voice to parliament

Anthony Albanese insists undecided Australians will arrive at a Yes vote ‘pretty comfortably’ during one-on-one conversations, saying this will be the key to a referendum win.

Anthony Albanese, federal Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and supporters of Yes23 at Goodwood in Adelaide. Picture: Chris Kidd

Anthony Albanese insists undecided Australians arrive at a Yes vote “pretty comfortably” during one-on-one conversations about the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, saying this will be the key to a referendum win on October 14.

With no signs of a turnaround in the polls less than two weeks before polling day, the Prime Minister said the Voice “isn’t a radical proposal, nor is it a conservative proposal, it’s a mainstream proposal” while attempting to contrast a “negative” No campaign with a “positive” Yes campaign.

Mr Albanese hit out at disinformation as he declared the Voice won’t advise the Reserve Bank of Australia or where Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines are located, despite Indigenous leaders and Yes campaigners previously saying it could.

Both sides of the referendum said they were confident they’d be able to effectively man booths to engage voters for the final sprint, with prepoll open in all states and territories from Tuesday.

“I know a lot of people have not made up their mind, and what I know is that the feedback, when people talk through these issues, they arrive at a Yes vote pretty comfortably,” Mr Albanese said before hitting the hustings in Hobart.

“I sincerely think the key to the next fortnight is those one-on-one conversations with people to accept this request of the overwhelming majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

“No one in the opposition actually believes that a non-binding advisory committee of Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people is going to sit around and say, where do you think our nuclear powered subs should go? What do you think the Reserve Bank should do about interest rates? They know that’s a nonsense. And yet they’ve raised these scare campaigns obsessively and have ignored cost-of-living.”

Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was approached for comment.

Uluru Statement of the Heart co-architect Megan Davis has said the Voice will be able to speak to all parts of government, including agencies such as the RBA, but will have to decide when and how it will have the most impact.

Indigenous artist Sally Scales has also said Aboriginal communities should be consulted on aspects of the AUKUS nuclear-submarine deal, including where they’re docked.

A No campaign spokesman said Fair Australia had managed to sign up nearly 10,000 volunteers for pre-poll shifts, including members of the Labor Party, Liberal Party and One Nation, and would go close to covering 55,000 hours of pre-poll.

While opponents of the Voice conceded they don’t have the resources that Yes23 does – particularly the union movement and GetUp – they were hoping to lock in Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania in the remaining days of the campaign.

“There will be a lot of excuses if they (the Yes campaign) go down. I’m not saying they’re going to,” the No spokesman said.

“If they’re unsuccessful it needs to be called out – they chose to divide the country, they communicated it really clearly then they complained about the fact the process isn’t fair. These are all things you have control over. That’s not a reasonable position.”

Launching a new ad on Monday to run across television for the final two weeks of the campaign, the Yes campaign is pivoting its messaging towards consequences of a No vote.

A mother stands in an empty room and viewers are shown an empty cot and nursery with no baby, with a voiceover saying: “What if I told you that our infant mortality rate is twice as high as non-Indigenous babies? That they’ll grow up half as likely to find employment and will face a life expectancy that’s eight years less than the rest of the country? A No vote means no progress.”