The Yes campaign for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament arrived in the Northern Territory on Wednesday, holding events in Darwin and Alice Springs in its first official visit to the territory.
Key points:
- The Yes campaign held events in Darwin and Alice Springs on Wednesday
- Campaign leaders say a Yes vote is important in the territory because of its high Indigenous population
- Votes in the NT, as well as the ACT, will count differently from states in the referendum
Speaking in Darwin, campaign director Dean Parkin said significant investment had been made into campaigning in the NT.
That is despite the fact people in the NT, as well as the ACT, will have different voting power from those living in states in the Voice referendum, due to their territory status.
Under Australia’s constitution, a referendum is only passed if it is approved by a majority of voters nation-wide and a majority of states.
Territory votes only count towards the national majority.
“The Northern Territory obviously has a very significant, very important Indigenous population,” Mr Parkin said.
“So it’s very important that our Yes campaign is engaging with Indigenous people and making sure that they feel like this is their campaign.”
At the campaign event in Alice Springs on Wednesday, Yes23 co-chair Rachel Perkins said a yes vote in the region was “very important”.
“Alice Springs has been used a lot in the media. Our people’s lives have been talked about, but they haven’t listened to us, and that’s the problem,” she said.
“Politicians, they fly in, they fly out, but actually do they listen to people on the ground? That’s what the Voice will give us.”
A spokesman for the No campaign body, Fair Australia, said its campaign was also underway in the NT.
“There is on-the-ground campaigning happening right now in the NT, with Fair Australia volunteers making calls, letterboxing and having face-to-face conversations,” he said.
However, a spokesperson for prominent No campaigner and NT Senator, Jacinta Price, said official No campaign events in the territory were yet to be confirmed.
Rise in demand for remote information sessions
Yes campaign leaders on Wednesday said they were teaming up with the NT’s four Aboriginal land councils to deliver their campaign message to remote communities.
“We have a structured campaign that supports organisations who want to go out and do that work, and the land councils have a really big role in that as well,” Yes campaigner Jade Ritchie said in Darwin.
“They’ve been fantastic in making sure that people are not only just informed, but are also understanding of how to enrol to vote.”
In a statement, chief executive of the Central Land Council, Les Turner, said it “can’t keep up with demand” for information sessions about the Voice, in which information is presented in languages including Pitjantjatjara and Warlpiri.
“Since early May our voice team has held 64 information meetings about the voice with more than 1,600 people across the southern half of the Northern Territory,” Mr Turner said.
“The closer we get to the referendum date the more requests we receive.”
He said the meetings involved presenting information verbally and answering questions.
“Some remote communities are asking us to come back for a second time to talk with people who missed out on earlier information sessions,” he said.
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