Penny Wong and Noel Pearson hit the churches and the temples to preach for the voice

After a weekend of preaching to the converted at Labor’s national conference, Labor and the Yes campaign are hitting the temples and the churches to convert undecided voters to the voice.

Noel Pearson, partly obscured, and Foreign Minister Penny Wong at a Sikh Temple in Allenby Gardens, Adelaide. Picture: Matt Turner

After a weekend of preaching to the converted at Labor’s national conference, the ALP and the Yes campaign are hitting the temples and the churches to convert ­undecided voters to the voice.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong and voice co-architect Noel Pearson were invited to a Sikh temple in Adelaide’s Allenby Gardens on Sunday to speak to worshippers about constitutional change that would guarantee an Indigenous advisory body and, proponents argue, close the gap where previous attempts have failed. At the revered langar – the community kitchen of the temple – they served food to the worshippers, following the ancient Sikh tradition of feeding anyone who is hungry and in need.

Mr Pearson, who has taken a leading role in promoting the Yes case throughout the country in recent weeks, told The Australian religious leaders would play a ­pivotal role in the campaign.

“Faith traditions and people of faith share values of social justice, reconciliation, human equality, and peace. We share these aspirations and seek this through this recognition,” he said on Sunday.

“More than 50 per cent of ­Australians identify as people of faith, and faith leaders have the opportunity to present the critical facts to their communities about recognition through voice so they can make an informed decision based on facts, not fear.”

But in Perth, 2700km west of the City of Churches, the No campaign’s most faithful supporters were out in force.

More than 1000 people – many of them queuing for hours for the best seats – were eager to hear the voice gospel according to opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, South Australian senator Kerrynne Liddle and No case leader Nyunggai Warren Mundine. The Liberals for No campaign launch was a loud and strident ­critique of Anthony ­Albanese and a proposal that Senator Price said would divide the nation on race lines.

Supporters of the No campaign hold up signs during a Liberal campaign event in Perth on Sunday.

“I understand love and acceptance and tolerance … instead of gaslighting and emotional blackmail, which is what we’re seeing on a national scale being driven by our Prime Minister,” Senator Price said.

In Western Australia, senator Michaelia Cash has driven a ­potent campaign against the voice by linking it to the Cook Labor government’s unpopular Aboriginal heritage laws. When the Cook government abandoned the laws last week, Senator Cash was able to use it as a demonstration of the permanency of constitutional change.

She said: “They were bad laws and the fact that they were able to dump them says this: You can scrap a bad law, but guess what? If you change the Constitution, you cannot alter it. It is already changed.”

Yes campaign insiders claim the referendum is still up for grabs, despite polls suggesting ­opposition is starting to look baked in. This is partly because of polling it believes shows about 40 per cent of voters are either “soft no” or undecided.

The campaign sees South Australia as ­potentially the deciding state. Faith groups are also seen as ­important partly because they allow one-on-one conversations between Yes campaigners and people who may not have made up their minds.

On Sunday at the Marion Church of Christ in the southern Adelaide suburb of Mitchell Park, Mr Pearson was with reverend Tim Costello as the Baptist minister explained why his faith led him to decide to vote Yes. He said he drew upon the sermon of the good Samaritan because it was about “seeing the humanity”.

Voice to parliament supporter and Indigenous leader Noel Pearson speaks at the Marion Church of Christ, Mitchell Park, Adelaide on Sunday. Picture: Matt Turner.

“We didn’t see Indigenous people when we federated as a ­nation,” Dr Costello said.

“It is very important that we see and recognise them now. This is a very small, safe step.”

Dr Costello believes the church hymn Amazing Grace – the favourite of late land rights giant ­Yunupingu – is a reminder of the important role that Christians can play in important reforms. It was written by slavery abolitionist John Newton.

“This voice issue is I think within the DNA of Christians who sing Amazing Grace,” he said.

Asked if he could convert undecided voters, Dr Costello said: “I hope so. I like to say that I want my faith to influence my politics but I don’t want the ­reverse. The voice is not bipartisan and I wish it was. Christians do tend to go into their political tribes in an election, but this is not an election.

“I am encouraging people: ‘allow your faith to speak to you and rise above simply the partisanship’ of this now being a left-right issue.”

The Australian understands churches and local governments will be used more by the Yes case in order to usher undecided and soft No voters into the Yes camp.

While a multi-faith coalition of top religious leaders backed the voice last year, they have not been as vocal as some had expected in the lead up to the final stretch of the referendum.

The invitations from faith groups to Yes campaigners have been plentiful over the past month, however.

Dr Costello is amping up his advocacy for the voice and will visit Perth next.

Groups taking part in the campaign in recent days include the Sangha Association, mosques and Uniting Care.

On Sunday, senators Cash, Liddle and Nampijinpa Price criticised corporations that financially backed the voice and suggested they could instead make donations to help Indigenous people now, such as by donating to a women’s shelter, a school with troubled students in Alice Springs or by asking Indigenous communities how to make a difference.

Mr Pearson responded by ­arguing that corporates that supported the Yes campaign were also spending money on improving Indigenous people’s lives.

“They are doing initiatives to engage Indigenous people in employment and in business opportunities, and so on,” he said.

“The companies that are signing up to the Yes campaign are companies that have been doing this for a long time, helping Indigenous people to develop economically, with employment and other opportunities. That they are supporting the Yes campaign is at the invitation of our people. We want them to help us.”