TRANSCRIPT
Both sides of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum debate have been travelling across the country, making their final pitches to voters.
During the final stretch before Australians head to the polling booths on October 14th, the Prime Minister and Opposition leader are targeting South Australia.
The Prime Minister is in the coastal city of Port Lincoln campaigning for the Voice.
He says despite it being a typically conservative seat, people in the region have been supportive of the proposed constitutional change.
"People are here. And when I was in Whyalla as well, were very supportive. The people that I spoke to and certainly the Aboriginal leaders here in the community who attended the event last night, were very supportive of a yes vote in this referendum. And I hope that community members listen to those voices, and accept the invitation to walk with them. There's everything to gain here, and absolutely nothing to lose. There is no downside."
The visit is a part of a nationwide blitz advocating for enshrining in the constitution an Indigenous Voice to Parliament and executive government.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is in Adelaide with South Australian Senator Kerrynne Liddle.
He's campaigning against a Voice, and opinion polls are suggesting the No vote will succeed on Saturday.
Mr Dutton says the decline of support for the 'Yes' campaign reveals a failure in leadership from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
"The fact that he has turned 65 per cent support for the Voice when it was first announced into something more akin to 35 per cent, that is a remarkable achievement over the course of the last 16 months. But sadly and tragically, it's divided our country. If it goes into the Constitution, if there is a successful vote on Saturday, it's permanent. It stays in there. It will be divisive and it won't be able to be overturned by legislation in the parliament."
In Brisbane, Indigenous community leaders have gathered to demonstrate support for a Voice to Parliament and to call on Australians to vote Yes in the referendum.
Nova Peris is a former Olympian and federal senator.
"For the next five days, I'm asking all Australians to wear their heart on their sleeve like they have for the last number of decades where Australians have faced the most dire circumstance. And for us as First Nations people to be denied the opportunity to be seen in a document that was written over 122 years ago - we as First Nations people have never denied you, White Australia, and we're asking you to see us and to put us as the firstborn in the nation's birth certificate."
But South Australian Senator Kerrynne Liddle says Indigenous Australians don't want an advisory body in Canberra - they want the government to listen to Indigenous politicians.
"Australians are rightly, and are right to be, confused about this on the basis of changing the lives of Indigenous Australians. That's a pretty bold claim. And what I'm hearing from Indigenous Australians that are doing it the toughest, is they don't believe that another committee caught up in Canberra with a bunch of finger-pointers is the answer. The issue is actually the monies going from the Commonwealth to the states and the states also having responsibility as well as those organisations whether they be Indigenous organisations or organisations that receive Indigenous-specific funding, that's where the problem lies and that's where our priorities should be."]]
Chair of the Aboriginal Land Council in Tasmania, Michael Mansell, is also a No Campaigner.
He told the ABC many No Campaigners would be happy to work with the Yes side after the referendum to keep fighting for Indigenous rights.
"There's going to be a void. And I think, rather than the Prime Minister allow the Yes camp, to walk away, bitterly disappointed with the outcome, feeling completely empty and hopeless because the whole thing came to nothing, the Prime Minister is going to have to offer that group some way to use their energies in the next 12 months. And the Yes camp say that they've got 50,000 volunteers, and it will be just a tragedy for the Prime Minister to allow them to walk away empty-handed."
NDIS Minister Bill Shorten has spoken to Channel Nine, and he says the campaign isn't over until all ballots have been cast - and the vote on Saturday doesn't represent the end of the process.
"At the end of the day, we haven't reached the end of the day. So I know everyone wants us to get into the post mortem. I'm not going to I'm still talking to a lot of Australians who haven't made up their minds. If the referendum succeeds or fails, the people of Australia have expressed their view. And everyone's got to respect that. So I know that's one thing which will be the case on the Sunday that the nation having had this discussion and debate, whatever verdict it passes on the referendum, we then have to come together as a people."
The Australian Electoral Commission has revealed 3.3 million people have already cast their vote at early voting centres, and 2 million more have applied for postal voting.
More than 21,800 people have cast early votes in remote communities - exceeding all remote votes cast in last year's federal election.
The Commission has also expressed concern over the 'unacceptable conduct' of a small number of voters in the lead-up to the referendum.
It has reminded voters to be respectful of staff and each other at voting centres, saying tensions are heightened compared to a federal election.
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