When Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announces in South Australia on August 30 the date of the Indigenous Voice referendum, it will start more than a month of formal campaigning by the Yes and No sides.
Mr Albanese is widely expected to send Australians to the polls on October 14, the date preferred by the government and the "Yes23" campaign. But the referendum could also be held on October 7, the weekend after the AFL and NRL grand finals.
On referendum day, 17.5 million eligible voters will be asked if they approve of a proposed alteration to the Australian Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to the parliament and the executive government.
Are you ready to have your say in the Voice referendum? Will you vote Yes or No, and why? Where have you been getting your information on the proposed changes? What questions do you still need answered to be able to make an informed choice?
We're asking our readers to share their views in an online survey conducted by ACM's research team at Chi Squared. ACM is the publisher of this masthead.
When we asked you about the Voice in June, more than 10,000 people responded: 38 per cent saying they expected to vote yes, 55 per cent indicating they did not support the establishment of the Voice, and 7 per cent undecided. In regional Australia the Yes vote shrank to 35 per cent while the No vote grew to 57 per cent.
Now, with the date of the referendum finally set to be confirmed and copies of the Australian Electoral Commission's official Yes/No case pamphlet due to begin arriving in mailboxes across the country, we're inviting readers to tell us how they intend to vote in October and why.
Click here or use your smartphone to scan the QR code displayed on this page. It will take you directly to the online survey where you can tell us what the Voice referendum means to you. All responses in the two-minute survey are confidential and individual responses will not be identifiable.
Together with the other newspapers of the ACM network, we'll report back on the results, which will also help shape our coverage of community discussion about the Voice in the countdown to referendum day.
If Australians vote Yes, the following words will be inserted into the Constitution:
"In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:
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."
To pass, the referendum needs the support of a majority of voters in four of the six states, and a majority of voters nationally.
Mr Albanese will announce the date ahead of two sitting weeks of parliament beginning September 4. The 1967 referendum, which allowed Indigenous Australians to be counted in the census and for parliament to make laws for First Nations people, was also launched in South Australia.
The Australian Electoral Commission is posting 13 million copies of the official 20-page Yes/No case pamphlet to all households. The pamphlet comes with a guide to participating in the referendum.
"Approximately 6.4 million enrolled Australians weren't of voting age when we had our most recent referendum in 1999 - for a lot of people the role of a referendum won't be familiar," commissioner Tom Rogers said.
