Voice referendum: Patrick Dodson says nation faces path akin to post-apartheid South Africa if Yes fails

Patrick Dodson suggests Australia faces a similar path to South Africa after the abolition of apartheid if the voice referendum fails.

Labor senator and National Referendum Council co-chair Pat Dodson appears via video at the National Press Club in Canberra. Picture: AAP

Patrick Dodson says Australia will need to take a path similar to South Africa following the abolishment of apartheid if the voice referendum is voted down and must develop a new way of ascertaining the views of Indigenous people.

The father of reconciliation said he was hopeful an Indigenous voice to parliament would be legislated by the next election, due in 2025, if the Yes vote won while issuing several stark warnings three days out from polling day, including that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people “can’t live in your own country and not be recognised”.

The West Australian senator, who has lost his beard and is still recovering from cancer, gave his only public speech during the voice referendum campaign to the National Press Club on Wednesday.

“If we say No … we’re going to have to look in the mirror and say who the hell are we, what have we done, and now what are we going to do about it?” Senator Dodson said

“The challenge will be for us to try and develop what the South Africans did when they got rid of the apartheid regime. They had to develop these dialogues and scenario planning processes and develop a truth and reconciliation commission in order for that country to try and heal from the woefulness of that apartheid policy and try to go forward.

“We would have to seriously look at getting rid of these notions of consultation and simply bringing some groups together and getting what they want to say. It’s going to be a structured process because the nation is bogged down in division here.”

Senator Dodson acknowledged the Albanese government had committed to implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full, which asks for voice, treaty and truth-telling, and would have to consider how to fulfil the second and third requests.

He said it was a challenge for the Australian people as much as the government to determine how the nation heals from any No vote.

“You can’t deny a people whose culture has been here for 60,000 years. If that’s what happens with a No vote, that’s what you’re doing, you’re saying ‘you people have no history here, you have no legitimacy here, you have no right to be here’. That’s an intolerable proposition,” Senator Dodson said.

“We have to change the methodology by how you ascertain the views and interests of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but also try to decide what scenarios that could be possible for better this service delivery, better participation, better quality of outcomes and greater levels of governance for First Peoples in the way that things get done.”

While polling has consistently shown falling support for the voice during the official campaign, with just a small bounce in some polls, Senator Dodson said he didn’t believe in the polls and was still confident the Yes camp could win over enough voters to succeed.

Peter Dutton cautioned Australians against casting an informal vote “in what is probably the most important ballot that you’ll cast in your lifetime”, urging people intending to vote No to vote early or on Saturday.

“We can’t afford for complacency to allow the Yes vote to get up, because it’s not in our country’s best interests,” he said.

“This is a new chapter being inserted into our Constitution – the first time ever since federation that’s been proposed. There’s been no constitutional convention, the process to design the voice doesn’t start until after the vote has taken place, again, without precedent.”

Yes23 is targeting Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia in the final three days of the campaign, telling undecided voters about the consequences of a No vote and pushing the still “significant support” among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Leading No campaigners Warren Mundine and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price will be in Tasmania, Alice Springs and Sydney before finishing the campaign together in Queensland on Friday and Saturday.

They will talk about the “voice of division”, in messaging that hasn’t changed since day one of the campaign.