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Albanese visits Uluru in final Voice push

Areas with the highest proportion of Indigenous voters said 'yes' to a voice to parliament.

Areas with the highest proportion of Indigenous voters said 'yes' to a voice to parliament. Photo: AAP

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has become emotional as he returned to the birthplace of the Voice referendum, just days before Australians are expected to vote No.

Albanese attended a ceremony late Tuesday where Anangu women performed a new dance they created with digging sticks that symbolised the burden of the referendum.

“The sticks represented the burden of the yes campaign, the burden of feeling the weight of history which is upon us,” Albanese said.

He said Australians had the opportunity to “lift that burden of history”.

Albanese was also presented with his own copy of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

“I came here when I became leader of the Labor Party and committed right here with Linda Burney to hold a referendum in our first term for a constitutionally enshrined Voice to our parliament, and that is what we are doing,” he said.

“I believe Australia can rise to the occasion between now and 14 October.”

Anthony Albanese at Uluru

Source: Twitter/Anthony Albanese

The Indigenous Voice referendum has been described as a nation-defining moment, just days ahead of the final outcome, with millions already casting their vote.

Albanese visited Uluru on Tuesday on a country-wide blitz to advocate for the Voice to be enshrined in the Constitution at Saturday’s referendum.

He noted members of the Central Land Council were unanimous in support of the voice, which was a recommendation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

“There is a sense of history as we approach Saturday, just a few days to go now, and I sincerely hope that Australians take this opportunity to vote ‘yes’,” he told Sky News on Tuesday.

“It is a key moment in the nation’s history and I just hope that Australians seize the opportunity to make this request. 

“There’s only upside, no downside.”

‘No’ campaign on track to win

Polls show the ‘No’ campaign is on track for victory, with a successful vote requiring a majority of votes in a majority of states.

The most recent Newspoll showed 58 per cent of voters supported ‘No’ while 34 per cent supported the Voice.

A Resolve poll showed a slight uptick to the ‘Yes’ vote in the past month, but still behind overall.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the Voice would be divisive.

“We’ve got a situation now where I think Australians in their millions are increasingly wanting to vote ‘No’ for the Voice,” he said.

“The constitution is our nation’s foundation document and rule book and it shouldn’t be changed lightly, and the Prime Minister has made a deliberate decision to not give details of how the Voice will operate to the Australian public.”

PM confident in Voice, after fresh polling

‘Unacceptable conduct’

The Australian Electoral Commission has expressed concern over “unacceptable conduct” of a small number of voters in the lead-up to the voice referendum.

With early voting under way, electoral commissioner Tom Rogers urged greater civility, saying tensions were heightened compared with a federal election.

“That’s probably a reflection of the kind of debate that we’re seeing in public in any case, which I think during a referendum always tends to be a bit more visceral than at a normal election,” he told ABC radio on Tuesday.

“A referendum unleashes passions that can boil over and we’ve seen what I would call unacceptable conduct, including some filming of our staff who are just trying to do the right thing.”

More than 21,800 people have cast votes in remote communities before polling day – exceeding all remote votes cast in last year’s federal election.

So far, 2.87 million votes have been cast.

-with AAP

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