Support for Australian indigenous referendum gaining slightly, poll shows

SYDNEY – Support for a proposal to amend Australia’s Constitution to enshrine recognition of indigenous people has edged higher, according to a poll published on Tuesday, although most voters intend to reject the change in a referendum now under way.

Early voting on whether to recognise indigenous Australians in the Constitution and create a “Voice to Parliament” to give them an avenue to advise the government on matters affecting First Nations Australians began on Monday.

The latest Guardian Essential poll shows the “yes” vote rose two points to 43 per cent over the past fortnight, while the “no” vote slipped two points to 49 per cent. The shifts are within the poll’s three-point margin of error.

A “hard no” group in the survey of 1,125 voters outnumbered “hard yes” respondents by 42 per cent to 30 per cent.

Voting in Australia’s first referendum since a 1999 rejection of a proposal to become a republic closes on Oct 14.

Supporters of the proposal argue that the Voice would bring progress for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, while opponents say it would be divisive.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who introduced the referendum, said

people tended to support the referendum once they understood its details.

“It is a pretty humble request, frankly,” Mr Albanese said on Triple M Hobart radio in Tasmania state.

“They’re not asking for a right of veto or the right to fund programmes or anything like that. They’re just saying, ‘We want to be heard’.”

Unlike New Zealand or Canada, Australia has no treaty with its indigenous people, who make up about 3.2 per cent of its population of 26 million.

Indigenous groups were marginalised by British colonial rulers and are not mentioned in Australia’s 122-year-old Constitution.

The referendum has backing from sports stars and celebrities, but support has slumped in recent months, with respondents in a poll last week saying the vote distracted from issues like the cost of living and housing.

Some critics have described the Voice as tokenism and toothless.

A campaign volunteer for the “no” vote, Mr Ken Harris, said he was concerned about policy changes that might come should the proposal be voted in.

“Noel Pearson, one of the advocates for the ‘yes’ side, has said this, ‘the Voice is just the first door’, so it’s what else is behind the door that worries me a great deal,” Mr Harris said.

“I don’t like to see the country divided according to race,” he said. “I think we all should be equal Australians, equal in every respect, and not have a special carve-out for one particular race.”

Altering the Constitution in Australia is notoriously difficult, and only eight referendums have passed since 1901, when it became a country.

The proposal must get a majority of votes nationwide, and at least four of the six states must back the change. REUTERS