Anthony Albanese has downplayed concerns the Voice to Parliament is dead, clashing with Sunrise host Natalie Barr about whether his leadership is at risk should the referendum fail.
Support for the Voice has fallen to new lows in the final week of the campaign, according to the latest Newspoll, with just one in three voters now backing the proposed constitutional change.
The poll, conducted by The Australian, suggested just 34 per cent of voters will vote Yes, while support for the No campaign had risen two points to 58 per cent.
The Prime Minister conceded it was going to be an uphill battle to win the referendum but insisted he was still hopeful there was a path for the Voice to clinch victory on Saturday.
“If you don’t run on the field … then you don’t win the Grand Final. We’re on the field, we’re taking up the request of Indigenous Australians,” Mr Albanese told Seven.
The Sunrise host quickly seized on the Labor leader’s analogy, pressing him on whether he had “hobbled” during the campaign and suggested the Yes camp’s performance was the equivalent of “half the team (being) subbed off”.
“This is a disaster, isn’t it? And also for your leadership. You stood there on election night and said, I’m hanging my hat on this,” Barr pressed, referring to his victory speech where Mr Albanese committed to the Uluru Statement of the Heart in full.
Mr Albanese insisted the referendum was about an idea, not about him.
“Yeah, but you stood there and one of the first things you and Penny Wong mentioned on election night was this,” Barr responded.
The Prime Minister said his reference to the Uluru Statement on election night was just one of the “dozens of times” he mentioned it.
“As did Scott Morrison before the 2019 election, as did John Howard before the 2007 election. Natalie, this constitutional recognition of our First Australians has been spoken about for decades,” Mr Albanese hit back.
The federal government has confirmed it would not seek to legislate an Indigenous advisory body if Australians knock back the proposal for constitutional change.
With just five days to go until polls close, the Prime Minister is expected to travel to Broken Hill, Port Lincoln and Uluru as well as stopping off to campaign in the capital cities in a bid to win over undecided voters.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is also travelling the country campaigning for a No vote. He has previously indicated he would hold a second referendum to acknowledge Indigenous Australians without an enshrined Voice.
Mr Dutton said much of the blame for the drop in support rested on Mr Albanese’s shoulders.
“It‘s been a deliberate strategy not to give that detail (about the body’s make up) ... I think a lot of Australians, you know, yes, absolutely want recognition, but they don't support the Voice and the Voice is permanent once it goes into the Constitution,” he told Tasmanian radio.
“Our Constitution is basically our nation's rulebook ... Australians are pretty hesitant to change it unless they understand all the detail.”
The government had hoped the Coalition would provide bipartisan support for the Voice when it first flagged the referendum. No referendum in Australia has been successful without the support of both side of politics.
Mr Albanese said it was “terrible” Mr Dutton had sided with the No camp, slamming the “absurd debates” being spread by anti-Voice campaigners.
“Peter Dutton has been a part of that, asking questions in the parliament … about the Indigenous Voice somehow advising the Reserve Bank of Australia about interest rates is of course, nonsense,” he said.
“It is unfortunate there's been a whole range of other issues raised by the No campaign.”
Indigenous leader and key Yes campaigner Noel Pearson warned Australians may “never live down” a failed referendum.
“Yes is moral choice, and no would be a travesty for the country and we will possibly never live it down,” he told ABC’s AM on Monday morning.
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