Daily Times

Australia’s prime minister took a swipe Monday at conservative “doomsayers” using fear tactics ahead of a referendum to give Indigenous people a voice on laws that affect them.

Debate on the so-called Voice has turned increasingly acrimonious, with supporters decrying deliberate disinformation and opponents saying it risks opening a racial divide.

If passed, Indigenous Australians — whose ancestors have lived on the continent for at least 60,000 years — would have a constitutionally enshrined right to be consulted by the government on laws that impact their community.

More than 200 years since British colonisation and the ensuing persecution of Indigenous people, they remain greatly disadvantaged with higher incarceration and jobless rates, and a life expectancy about eight years shorter than that of other Australians.

In a keynote speech in Adelaide on Monday, Prime Minister Albanese said Australian voters face a “profound choice” when they go to the polls sometime later this year.

A yes vote, he said, would allow Australians to proclaim to themselves, and to the world, “we are a mature nation coming to terms with our history, assured of our values, and shaping our own destiny.”

It will be, he said, a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to change the country for the better.

“We sometimes speak of ourselves as a young nation, but the truth is we are one of the world’s oldest democracies.

“Our continent is home to the world’s oldest continuing culture, which we are at last coming to recognise as the great source of pride that it must be.”

The “yes” vote is still ahead in a two-way fight, polls show, despite indications of an erosion in support since the conservative opposition decided to campaign for a “no”.

An Essential Research survey published mid-May gave put support for the Voice at 59-41 percent.

Australia’s conservative opposition Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton has hardened his opposition and his rhetoric on the subject, last week declaring the Voice would “re-racialise our nation”.

“It will have an Orwellian effect where all Australians are equal, but some Australians are more equal than others,” he said.

On Monday, Dutton accused Voice supporters of using race to attack the “no” side.

“The prime minister out there name-calling people and others suggesting that people are racist because they don’t support the Voice — it’s completely unacceptable,” he said.

By way of response, Albanese hit out Monday at “galling” opposition “scare campaigns” that, he said, underestimated Australians’ ability to rise above division.

Australians would not be lured by “ludicrous invitations to jump at our own shadows”, the prime minister said.

“Australians have a healthy scepticism of doomsayers, a scepticism kept in good health by memories of all the predictions offered by the Chicken Littles of the past,” he said.

Australia’s race discrimination commissioner, Chin Tan, urged politicians to avoid a “racial bun fight”, in an interview published Monday in the Nine media group’s newspapers. The political battle over Indigenous recognition is already leaving a mark on the community.

One of Australia’s top television journalists, Stan Grant, quit his current affairs show with national broadcaster ABC this month citing “relentless” racial attacks he faced as an Indigenous person in the spotlight.

But the stakes are now higher, he said in a departure announcement.

“There is a referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament and I am not alone in feeling judged. This is an Australian judgement on us. Such is politics,” Grant wrote. “But racism is a crime. Racism is violence. And I have had enough.” The vote is expected to take place in the last three months of the year.