Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan has warned against creating a racially charged debate over the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
The call for civility came as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese received a standing ovation after he delivered the Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration in Adelaide on Monday night.
Mr Albanese took aim at opponents of the Voice and reaffirmed his confidence that the referendum would succeed.
But Mr Tan said it was important the debate did not descend into one of race.
“The Voice is not about race, it’s about participation, equity … elevating the position of First Nations people,” he told the ABC.
“It’s about a … journey we’ve travelled for a long time in this country, about finding a way out and moving forward to support our Indigenous peoples.”
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In his keynote speech, Mr Albanese said the Voice was not a proposal that had been rushed and there had been no shortcuts.
“The reverse is the case. This has been a grassroots movement, the culmination of years of discussion, consultation and patient hard work by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves,” he said.
The Prime Minister called out “doomsayers” who promoted scare campaigns and underestimated Australians “so radically”.
“Australians won’t succumb to their appeals to fear and their ever more ludicrous invitations to jump at our own shadows,” he said.
“That’s because 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.”
The latest polls show support for the Voice has dropped to a slight majority, with the ‘no’ case on track to win if the trend doesn’t change.
The Voice legislation is expected to be voted on in the lower house this week, before it heads to the Senate.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who last week described the Voice as Orwellian, also called for a respectful debate.
“The Prime Minister (is) out there name-calling people and others suggesting that people are racist because they don’t support the voice, it’s completely and utterly unacceptable,” he said in Victoria.
Indigenous leader and prominent advocate for a ‘no’ vote, Warren Mundine, said the debate was starting to become “really disgraceful”.
“This referendum is dividing Australia and you see it in the polling, and you see it out in the community,” he told the ABC.
But Mr Albanese said ‘no’ case proponents were peddling a ‘great lie’ by saying the proposed amendment would put race in the constitution.
He said opponents “know full well” that race has been in the constitution since Federation.
“These arguments are also galling because, unlike some existing provisions in the constitution, the voice amendment does not refer to race at all,” he said.
“As the text of the amendment makes clear: Australians will be asked to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia, not as a race.”
Prominent ‘yes’ campaigner Noel Pearson has warned a rejection of the voice would put an end to reconciliation in Australia.
The referendum is expected to be held between October and November this year.
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe said the Voice did not have enough power to be effective.
“In 1967, more than 90 per cent of people voted yes in the referendum to include First Nations mob in the constitution, but what difference did it actually make to Blak lives?” she wrote on Twitter.
Nationals Leader David Littleproud said his party had a culture of allowing divergent views, and respected Liberal MPs who supported the Voice.
-AAP
