Support for the Indigenous voice referendum has ticked up for the first time in months but ‘yes’ still lags ‘no’ voters
The latest Guardian News Today Essential poll found 43 per cent of 1125 respondents will vote ‘yes’, up two per cent from the previous fortnight.
But 49 per cent intend to vote ‘no’ and eight per cent are undecided ahead of the referendum which requires the support from a majority of Australians and states to pass.
A new YouGov poll puts ‘no’ support at 53 per cent compared to 38 per cent for ‘yes’ and nine per cent undecided.
Labor voters are more likely to support the referendum with 49 per cent planning on voting ‘yes’, YouGov found, and 41 per cent ‘no’.
Coalition voters are largely against with 73 per cent planning on voting it down.
Inner cities are more likely to vote ‘yes’ compared to their regional and rural counterparts and support remains the highest amount among young Australians (58 per cent) but an overwhelming amount of people over 65 are against it (68 per cent).
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese remains optimistic with 600,000 people already voting early.
“I take great heart in that, that Australians are eager to vote ‘yes’ in this referendum,” he said in Sydney on Wednesday.
A concerted effort is being made to engage Australia’s multicultural communities in the referendum.
However, some have reported little to no engagement from either side of the campaign.
The Sydney Alliance, which is made up of more than 40 civil society organisations, is translating referendum material into migrant languages in the city’s west, explaining how to vote.
The alliance is also tapping into the feelings of disempowerment to explain why an Indigenous advisory body is needed in the constitution, Chantelle Ogilvie-Ellis told AAP.
The feedback from Western Sydney was relatively positive, she said.
“There’s not a lot of acknowledgment of the history of Indigenous people in Australia, so a lot of our conversations are filling in that background,” Ms Ogilvie-Ellis said.
The Yes23 campaign captain in the outer Melbourne electorate of Lalor said the multicultural community in Victoria’s capital was equally receptive.
The main question from migrant and refugee communities is why such a measure hasn’t already been implemented and First Nations recognised, Emma Moxom said.
“They understand what Indigenous people have been through and they’ve been through things quite similar,” she said.
There was “fantastic support from a big range of multicultural leaders”, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said.
But some second-generation European migrants in inner-city Sydney suburbs, who did not want to be quoted, told AAP they had received almost no engagement from either side outside a letterbox drop.
A number remain sceptical about what the voice could achieve when countless other programs have failed.
Prominent Indigenous ‘no’ campaigners Warren Mundine and Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price have called the voice divisive and said it would split Australia down racial lines.
“It doesn’t matter whether we were here 60,000 years ago, or six months ago, you are Australian … the problem with this divisive referendum is the fact that it seeks to create different levels of citizenship,” Senator Price said.
It was this messaging that Desis for ‘yes’ – a South Asian-Australian-run campaign – was seeking to counter, co-founder Nishadh Rajo said.
“It’s really easy to spread messages like, ‘if you vote this through people will take your land away or you’re giving special rights to a particular group of people’,” he said,
“That is why we are working so hard to spread the right information.”
Early voting began this week ahead of the official ballot on October 14.
