Australian singer Kamahl has backflipped on his support for the Voice to Parliament for a second time just two days after saying he would vote Yes.
The 88-year-old wrote on social media on Friday that he would ‘vote YES’ at the upcoming referendum on October 14, citing a meeting with Indigenous comedian Dane Simpson and constitutional lawyer Eddie Synot which saw him pledge support.
But two days later, the Malaysian-born singer has come out against his own stance, telling The Project that he will be voting No, bringing an end to what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had called ‘Kamahl-mentum’.
‘If you do the Voice this way, it becomes a racist issue. You’re putting a whole race of people separate from the rest of the country,’ he said, in a confused manner.
‘I apologise, call me a hypocrite or uninformed but I am informed now. Whatever I said before now, wipe it out, but start all over again and forgive me.’
Australian singer Kamahl has backflipped on his support for the Voice to Parliament for a second time just two days after saying he would vote Yes, to the shock of The Project hosts, including Rachel Corbett (pictured)
The Project host Hamish Macdonald (pictured) ‘fact checked’ Kamahl’s $40billion claim
Then Kamahl began to butt heads with hosts Hamish Macdonald and Rachel Corbett after the singer began quoting a $40billion figure that he believed was paid to the Indigenous community by the government, which the journalist ‘fact checked’.
‘If this comes to be it becomes based on race, the Indigenous people already have a Voice, it’s purely an opportunity of making an effort to find out what they want to say and what should be done for them,’ he said on the program
‘And at the moment it is $40billion a year … what is the money going to?’
Kamahl was immediately pulled up by Macdonald, who asked him where he was ‘getting that figure from’.
‘The $40billion? I saw it in… somebody told me. Do you think I’m making it up?’ the singer shot back at the host.
The interview steered away from the topic, before Kamahl brought up the figure again, saying ‘all I know is that they’re spending $40billion’.
‘I feel like we should just probably fact check the $40billion figure because you’ve used it a few times and I know a lot of people are listening to you,’ Macdonald said.
Read Related Also: Uncontrolled migration is putting the future of Europe at stake, Italy warns as the number of people arriving illegally returns to crisis levels of 2015
On Friday, Kamahl tweeted his support for a Yes vote in the referendum (pictured)
Kamahl (centre) wrote on social media on Friday that he would ‘vote YES’ at the upcoming referendum on October 14, citing a meeting with Indigenous comedian Dane Simpson and constitutional lawyer Eddie Synot which saw him pledge support
Kamahl (pictured on The Project) has changed his mind twice about how he will vote at the upcoming referendum
‘I think there was a claim made by Tony Abbott some years ago, that the National Indigenous Australians agency spent $30billion a year.
‘That’s been fact checked as false. The government agency says it’s never administered funding of $30billion a year on Indigenous programs, it’s total budget for 2022-23 was $4.5billion.’
After a bit more back and forth between the pair, Kamahl admitted he had ‘made a mistake’ on the figure but was still choosing to vote No.
When announcing his previous Yes stance, Kamahl said he had spend ‘sleepless nights weighing the pros and cons’.
In another tweet (pictured) Kamahl wrote that he had learned about Australia’s pre-colonial history
Kamahl’s backflip to his backflip has ended the Prime Minister’s hope of the singer helping to change minds on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
His initial change of heart led Mr Albanese to say he was sure ‘Kamahl-mentum’ would pick up steam in the lead up to the referendum.
‘Kamahl-mentum, that’s a new thing that has arisen today,’ he said while campaigning at West Ryde shopping centre in Sydney’s north-west on Saturday.
‘Something I get great heart from is the decision of Kamahl, a very courageous decision.
‘He’s someone who came out and said no and went away, spoke to people, read what it is about, read the question and decided that he would come out and declare his support for Yes, and to say why would anyone oppose this?’
