The yes campaign for the referendum will offer grants of up to $15,000 for a blitz of community functions supporting the Indigenous voice to parliament, in a bid to support thousands of events nationwide backing the change.
Other big headline events and an advertising campaign are in the works for the yes campaigners, who will begin ramping up their public messaging from next week in the long run-up to the vote on an Indigenous voice to parliament, widely anticipated to be held in October this year.
It comes as the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says he is seeking consensus with the Coalition opposition about the details of the voice, in the event of a successful referendum, including agreement with Peter Dutton over the body’s composition and membership.
Rachel Perkins, an Arrernte Kalkadoon film-maker and the co-chair of Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition (AICR), said the focus of the yes campaign would be on positive messaging and the benefits of the voice.
Perkins said they wanted to offer an antidote to the “fear and misinformation” circulating in the community, driven to an extent by parliamentarians.
What has happened already?
The Albanese government has put forward the referendum question: "A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Do you approve this proposed alteration?"
The PM also suggested three sentences be added to the constitution:
- There shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
- The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
- The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.
How would it work?
The voice would be able to make recommendations to the Australian parliament and government on matters relating to the social, spiritual and economic wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The voice would be able to table formal advice in parliament and a parliamentary committee would consider that advice. But the voice co-design report said all elements would be non-justiciable, meaning there could not be a court challenge and no law could be invalidated based on this consultation.
How would it be structured?
The co-design report recommended the national voice have 24 members, encompassing two from each state, the Northern Territory, ACT and Torres Strait. A further five members would represent remote areas and an additional member would represent Torres Strait Islanders living on the mainland.
Members would serve four-year terms, with half the membership determined every two years.
“I think if there was anything that proved how important the voice is, it’s been the last week in Canberra. Aboriginal people have been used as a political football and kicked around the Senate, and before that the house of reps, in a way that actually has very little to do with Aboriginal people and is much more about political point-scoring,” Perkins said.
AICR has been established as a charity with deductible gift status to allow it to receive donations to help drive and administer the yes campaign, and has a war chest worth more than $35m.
The AICR’s Yes23 campaign hopes to enlist 10,000 volunteers in over 100 active community supporter groups nationwide, with a new funding program to encourage grassroots groups to hold public events and forums as the referendum campaign kicks into its next gear.
“It is about ensuring people, no matter where they live, can get informed about how a voice will give Indigenous people a real say on how to fix unique challenges across areas such as health, housing and education,” said Yes23 director Dean Parkin.
The campaign will host a series of “Come together for yes” events across major cities this weekend.
Large community gatherings will be held will be held in capital and regional cities, in addition to hundreds of other forums nationwide, and the yes campaign is encouraging ongoing events in smaller centres through grants delivered by its Yes Alliance Capacity Fund.
Offering grants of between $1,000-$15,000, the yes campaign says some smaller communities and Indigenous organisations might need more help to organise their own supporter events.
“We want to encourage even more community conversations with everyday Australians about why a successful referendum will help deliver practical outcomes on the ground and move Australia forward,” Parkin said.
Leaders of the yes campaign believe a recent slip in public support for the voice will be reversed once the community campaign begins.
“We are trying to run a respectful campaign,” Perkins said. “We don’t engage in argument because we have a more important task, which is to give the facts to Australians in a manner that respects everybody’s democratic right to make this decision.
“It’s very much like the equal marriage campaign: staying positive, staying respectful, and taking the high ground rather than getting into the gutter with our opponents.”
Both the yes and no campaigns are expected to begin other activities such as door-knocking and leaflets in coming weeks, as well as boosting TV and online advertising.
Albanese said he had “faith in the Australian people” that the referendum would succeed, saying many people would only properly tune into the campaign once voting day was officially called.
“Then people will really focus here,” he told Sky News on Sunday.
Perkins dismissed criticism that the campaign was lacking visibility and cohesion.
“People may not be able to see it, but already there is a lot of subterranean activity going on. There are kitchen table conversations happening right across the country, where average Australians are having chats with their families and their community groups about the question being posed and sharing information. That’s something that you don’t see in the newspapers, but it is happening every day of the week, thousands of conversations and that will gain momentum,” she said.
Perkins said the success of the vote will depend on Australians getting active and involved.
“We hope that they make a decision to support us and stand beside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Obviously, that’s up to them. But we do ask that they get informed rather than say, “if you don’t know vote no”, which is a complete cop-out.”
