Yes and No campaigners are making their final pitches to voters with less than 24 hours to go until polls open on referendum day.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was in Adelaide this morning encouraging voters to back the proposed Voice to parliament, saying creating the body to benefit First Nations peoples would cost Australians nothing.
“This is a time where Australians have that opportunity to show the generosity of spirit that I see in the Australian character where at the worst of times we always see the best of the Australian character,” he said.
“I hope we see you tomorrow. I hope we see that generosity. And I call upon my fellow Australians to vote Yes tomorrow.”
Albanese is also preparing to address the nation on Saturday night.
It is not common practice for prime ministers to give a speech on referendum night, but according to the Sydney Morning Herald, Albanese will seek to ”knit the country back together” after the divisive campaign.
Polls are indicating Australians won’t deliver the Yes vote Albanese has been calling for since before last year’s federal election.
Opinion polls are placing support for the Voice in the low to mid-40s while more than 50 per cent of voters are planning to cast a No ballot.
How Australia voted in all 44 of the nation’s referendums
But with some surveys showing up to a quarter of voters remain undecided heading into referendum day, Yes campaigners are remaining optimistic about what would be a miraculous turnaround at the polling booth.
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“This is something that involves humid rights. It is about closing the gap.
“I have seen first-hand not only on this occasion but on the many occasions when I have travelled outback and around Australia… the need and the concerns that you would normally only ever get in overseas third-world countries.
“Australia can do better. Australia will do better. I have faith in the Australian people to vote Yes on Saturday and to change things for the better and to support future generations.”
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton once again called on Australians to reject the proposal due to a number of concerns including a lack of detail.
“I hope it’s a No vote on the weekend because it hasn’t been properly explained,” he told Today.
“It’s divisive. It’s permanent once it goes into the Constitution and I just don’t think, in their millions, Australians will support it.
“In fact, quite the opposite. I think they’re angry because the detail hasn’t been provided.”
Fellow No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price yesterday became one of the roughly five million Australians to have voted early when she cast her ballot in Alice Springs.
