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State Liberals across Australia divided over referendum vote
NSW Liberal leader Mark Speakman says he will vote ‘yes’ in the upcoming referendum on the Indigenous voice to parliament, marking the latest Liberal leader to declare a position in the divided party.
He maintained he would not take an active role in the referendum or advise others how to vote.
Liberals around the country remain divided on the voice referendum, with WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam this week withdrawing her support for the ‘yes’ vote.
The Victorian opposition leader, John Pesutto, has given Coalition MPs the freedom to choose how they vote but is yet to reveal his personal position, as is Queensland opposition leader, David Crisafulli.
The leader of Australia’s sole Liberal government, Tasmanian premier Jeremy Rockliff, plans to vote yes in the referendum.
For more on this story see, the full report by Guardian Australia’s Nino Bucci:
NSW Liberal leader backs Indigenous voice saying rewards ‘outweigh the risks’Read moreUpdated at 20.41 EDT24m ago20.23 EDTVoice will win when ‘push comes to shove’, Farrell predictsDaniel Hurst
Don Farrell has predicted Indigenous constitutional recognition through a voice will have “majority support” when “push comes to shove”.
The trade minister and special minister of state predicted back at the start of June that strong support from “that young cohort will be enough to counter the ‘no’ vote and I think it will be the young people who will deliver [an] Indigenous voice for Australia”.
That was back when he addressed the National Press Club. Since then there have been a series of polls showing a negative trend for the yes side.
‘I think it will be the young people who will deliver’: Don Farrell on the voice. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
On Sky News this morning, Farrell said he was still optimistic:
The campaign to change the constitution was always going to be a difficult campaign.
I continue to believe that the majority of Australians will support change to the constitution to recognise Indigenous Australians in our constitution through a voice to parliament, so I continue to be optimistic.
I’ve been involved in my role as special minister of state in ensuring that we continue to build on the number of Australians who are eligible to vote.
The last couple of weeks the AEC announced that we’ve almost 98% of Australians on the [electoral] roll and 94% of Indigenous Australians on the roll.
Lots of young people are ensuring that they’re going to be eligible, so I think when push comes to shove and the vote takes place on the referendum, that we will have majority support for that…
2023-08-12 19:39:12
Link from www.theguardian.com
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