Nationwide day of action seeks to rally support for a campaign to recognise Australia’s Indigenous people in its constitution.
Thousands of people in Australia rallied to support the Yes23 campaign to recognize Indigenous people in the constitution before a referendum, despite a dip in support.The gatherings on Sunday, organised by the Yes23 campaign, were part of a nationwide “day of action” to rally the public after a recent dip in support for the constitutional change.
The proposal, which will be put up for a referendum between October and December, seeks to establish an advisory body – the Indigenous Voice to Parliament – to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people a direct say in policies that affect them.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s centre-left Labor government backs the change, while the opposition Liberal-National conservatives urge a “No” vote.
On Sunday, an Australian Council of Social Service tweet showed Sydney rally attendees in T-shirts with the words “Vote Yes” and caps with the words “The Uluru Statement”, referring to a key document that calls for an Indigenous Voice.
Yes23, the group behind more than 25 rallies nationwide, said the crowd in Sydney was about 3,000 and that it expected up to 25,000 people to participate in total.
These community events are opportunities for people to come together and gain valuable information about the importance of a successful referendum later this year,” Yes23 campaign director Dean Parkin said in a statement.
The day of action comes after support for the referendum appeared to be ebbing according to a poll last month, which showed “No” ahead for the first time, 51 percent to 49 percent.
He noted that Indigenous people, who make up about 3.2 percent of Australia’s population of almost 26 million and who were not granted full voting rights until the 1960s, are not even mentioned in the country’s constitution.
according to his word “So first, this referendum is essential to change that,” he said from the town of Normanton in Queensland state. “Secondly, we don’t just need another political body. We need people from the grassroots, everyday people, to get in there, to have a say, to have a voice for government, because no one knows better than the people who are intimately involved with an issue. So, we’ve come up with a solutions that we’ve seen work, that government has not taken on board.”
while the Opponents, including some Indigenous people, have said the proposal lacks detail and will divide Australians, you can check our article on Germany visa,what you should know
Getting constitutional change is difficult in Australia.
The government must secure a double majority in the referendum, which means more than 50 percent of voters nationwide, and a majority of voters in at least four of the six states must back the change.
In the past, there have been 44 proposals for constitutional change in 19 referendums, and only eight of these have passed.
Most notably, a 1967 referendum on Indigenous rights saw a record Yes vote. source aljazeera
