Central Australian elders urge Anthony Albanese to hold his nerve on Voice to Parliament

Aboriginal elders from Central Australia are urging Anthony Albanese to stay the course and hold the Voice referendum this year in the wake of his decision not to announce the date early next month.

Aboriginal elders from Central Australia are urging Anthony Albanese to stay the course and hold the Voice referendum this year in the wake of his decision not to announce the date early next month.

Leaders of the Yes23 camp were blindsided earlier this month when Mr Albanese declared he would not be announcing the date of the Voice referendum when he travels to the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land in early August.

They had expected the date to be unveiled there a year after Mr Albanese released his first draft of the proposed amendment to the Constitution to establish the Voice and had been urging journalists to attend the festival for the historic announcement.

The PM pullback came as a number of opinion polls have shown support for the Voice has weakened in recent months.

Kaytetye Elder Geoff Shaw OAM from Mt Nancy Camp, 78, was born in the Todd River and Lurtitja Elder Papunya Community Leader Alison Anderson, 63, at Charles Creek, Alice Springs. Picture Chloe Erlich

Former Central Land Council President Geoff Shaw, 78, who was “born in the river bed” and as a young man did two in tours in Vietnam with the Australian infantry, said the vote needed to be held quickly.

“Most of the Aboriginal society are behind the Prime Minister and he should go and push it through as soon as possible,” he said. Mr Shaw, who was made an OAM in 1993, said once the Voice was in place “then we’ll start to talk about the other stuff like Treaty and other administrative stuff – people’s health and education and so on”.

“He shouldn’t wait too long. I implore him to go ahead with having the referendum this year. Aboriginal people are waiting and they’re sick and tired of waiting. They want it to move forward,” he said.

Mr Shaw, who said the vast majority of people in his area would “implore everybody to vote Yes to give the Aboriginal Australians the recognition they deserve,” took a swipe at the Indigenous leaders of the No case.

Mr Shaw said the vast majority of people in his area would “implore everybody to vote Yes to give the Aboriginal Australians the recognition they deserve. Picture Chloe Erlich

“They speak for themselves, they’re not part of the Aboriginal community,” he said.

“We don’t sleep in the same bed as those people.”

Former NT MP Alison Anderson, who at various times has been a member of both the ALP and the Country Liberal Party, said the vote needed to be held as soon as possible.

“The message we want to give the Prime Minister is to make sure the referendum is held this year,” she said.

“I don’t think he should be thinking about delaying it or putting it off or anything like that. We want it this year. We know what we want.”

She urged her fellow Australians to vote Yes, saying “if we can do it in ’67 we can do it again”.

“I know as an Aboriginal person that lives and breathes Aboriginal communities that Aboriginal people are very positive towards the referendum and we want the referendum to be held here,” she said.

“Of course you’re going to get one or two per cent who say No, but the majority of the people out in the bush are going to say Yes”.

Mr Shaw also had a message for his fellow ex-servicemen.

“I’d like that all the Vietnam veterans follow my lead and vote for Yes,” he said.

“I’m a Vietnam veteran twice over and Vietnam veterans should get together and follow me.”

POLLIES PRESS TO TAKE CONTROL

Labor Party officials are pressing the party’s state and federal MPs to take the lead in campaigning on the Voice as frustration grows that the official Yes23 campaign lacks the know-how to win this year’s referendum.

Earlier this month Federal Labor Party officials ordered their state secretaries around Australia to take direct control of campaigning for the referendum using the party’s electoral machinery.

The order has already led to party headquarters diverting campaign staff to the Voice full time.

The step-up has come as MPs have expressed their frustration at the ability of the Yes23 campaign to put boots on the ground.

Anthony Albanese. Picture: NCA NewsWIRE / John Gass

“We’ve been told there are these thousands of volunteers but I’m still waiting to see them,” one MP said.

The MP said he believed his frustration was shared by his colleagues.

“I wouldn’t know who to ring in the Yes campaign, I assume they exist but I wouldn’t know them.”

A senior federal official said the need to mobilise teams of volunteers to persuade voters in seats the ALP holds comfortably would stretch the party’s resources.

Normally election campaign resources are concentrated in target seats but the official said “there are no target seats in a referendum campaign”.

A Melbourne MP whose safe Labor seat contains a large of number of migrant voters said local party volunteers were scrambling to organise volunteers for when the campaign finally kicks off.

The MP said that while voters from culturally and linguistically diverse communities were reliable Labor voters the referendum was different proposition. He also said the large numbers of Chinese voters in both Sydney and Melbourne were “a worry” for the Yes campaign.

A state ALP official said Yes23 was largely made up of “well-meaning lefties who have no idea how to run a campaign.”

Originally published as Central Australian elders urge Anthony Albanese to hold his nerve on Voice to Parliament