Linda Burney ‘absolutely’ confident of voice referendum win

Linda Burney has told the Labor faithful she had ‘absolutely no doubt’ the referendum on an Indigenous voice would be carried.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney is confident the voice referendum will succeed. Picture: Jose Kalpers

Linda Burney has told the Labor faithful that Australians are not being asked to “design the curtains” in supporting this year’s referendum on the proposed Indigenous voice.

Speaking at a panel discussion on how the voice will change the lives of First Nations people, the Indigenous Australians Minister said it would recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and allow communities to inform policy and get better results.

Ms Burney said she had “absolutely no doubt” the referendum would be carried. “The question is this: ‘Do you support a change to the Constitution to recognise the first people of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice, yes or no,’’ she told the packed room.

“It is as simple as it gets. It’s nothing more complex than that.

“The arguments (that) we want more information and so forth; what you are being asked to do as a referendum is not design the curtains — it’s whether we need a voice to the parliament to recognise our people.

“And we will win this, I have absolutely no doubt about that.’’

Published polling has shown that support for the referendum has fallen in recent months.

Ms Burney said she did not know the date of the referendum, which some have tipped would be held on October 15.

“We cannot deny the urgency of the moment and there will definitely be a referendum later this year,’’ she said.

“Everyone says ‘Linda you must know the date’ … well, I don’t except it won’t be on the same day as the football finals and it will be before the wet season, so you go figure.”

She said there had been a “lot of discussion about delaying it” but it would go ahead as planned.

South Australian Attorney-General Kyam Maher, who this year shepherded Australia’s first state-based Indigenous voice to parliament, said the success of the referendum would depend on people listening to what was being proposed. The legislation had been passed this year and six regional voice bodies had been formed to fill the membership of the statewide voice.

Mr Maher said it usually took “about 90 seconds” for people who were unaware of the federal voice proposal to be convinced to support it. “All of us know from our own experiences in whatever field of work we work in,’’ he said.

“When you make decisions that affect our people, hearing from them before you make those decisions, leads to better decision-making.

“It is just common sense.

“And there’s plenty of evidence from all around the world to support that, that we can’t continue doing things the same way.

“The disparity in results for the lives of Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people … shouldn’t be tolerated.”

Lara Watson, from the ACTU, said she had overseen the training of thousands of union members to help in advocating for the voice but more advocacy was needed in social media to counter “the noise’’ of the No campaign.