‘Canberra bubble’ debate dampens Voice support

By Tess Ikonomou in Canberra

SLIGHTLY more than half of Australians now back an indigenous Voice, new polling shows.

The survey shows the number of people who would vote “yes” has dropped from 58 per cent to 53 per cent over the past month, with a real risk of the referendum failing.

The polling, undertaken by Resolve Strategic for “The Sydney Morning Herald”, reveals the “no” campaign is on track to win if the trend continues.

Resolve director Jim Reed said states were moving over to the “no” side, meaning the referendum would fail as it would not meet the requirement of a majority of votes in a majority of states.

Dean Parkin, director of the Yes Campaign Alliance, said the results were due to the debate recently having been about “politics and legal talk”.

Mr Parkin said “yes” proponents believed a “very winnable proposition” could be put to the Australian people later in the year.

“It’s been tied up in the Canberra bubble and ultimately this question of the referendum is not going to be resolved by any one politician,” he told ABC radio on Wednesday.

Cabinet minister Ed Husic said it would be a “bold move” to make a call on the outcome of the referendum at this time.

“We’re going to have polls that will show support increasing, decreasing… we’ve got a journey to go through to explain the benefit of this to the nation and the importance of doing this,” he said.

“We’re very focused on getting to the point where we get majority support for ‘yes’ and we’ll work with people to get there.”

The Liberal Party supports constitutional recognition of indigenous people, but is opposed to a national Voice, and instead is calling for regional bodies to be legislated.

The referendum is set to be held between October and December, pending laws passing parliament in June.