$5 million donation launches Yes campaign for Voice to Parliament

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A campaign to drive national support for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament has received a $5 million shot in the arm.

The “yes” campaign was launched on Thursday at the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute in Adelaide, in the lead-up to the referendum, which will be held between October and December.

The Paul Ramsay Foundation, one of Australia’s leading philanthropists, announced it was backing the voice by donating $5 million to Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition.

Hundreds of volunteers and advocates from faith groups to businesses, gathered to discuss the nationwide rollout of the campaign.

Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition co-chair Rachel Perkins said the “campaign now has tremendous momentum as we head towards a referendum later this year that offers a chance for a moment of national unity”.

Paul Ramsay Foundation director and Kuku Yalanji woman Natalie Walker said the foundation aimed to make a “lasting contribution” to positive social change, with the voice a “critical step” in doing that.

A website yes23.com.au has also been launched to support local campaigners and drive donations.

Earlier, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused Peter Dutton of trying to create confusion about the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

The Opposition Leader has not revealed whether the Liberals will support the Voice but has continued to raise concerns about a lack of detail.

Mr Albanese said there was an “enormous amount” of detail already and people could judge for themselves how genuine Mr Dutton’s concerns were.

“Peter Dutton is showing that he wants to create confusion and is doing nothing that would indicate his starting point is how we work on this together [and] how we get this done together,” Mr Albanese said in Adelaide.

“It’s not like it’s very subtle … and it contrasts with the good will that is needed.”

Mr Albanese said he wanted to secure maximum support for the proposal and had agreed to demands by the Liberal Party to release a pamphlet outlining the “yes” and “no” cases.

Indigenous independent senator Lidia Thorpe, who quit the Greens over her concerns about the Voice, is yet to decide if she supports the proposal.

The senator had a “good conversation” with leading advocate and member of the government’s referendum working group Professor Megan Davis on Wednesday night.

“It’s important that the black sovereign movement has an opportunity to meet with those making decisions for our people,” Senator Thorpe told ABC Radio.

Senator Thorpe said it was not too late to question what the Voice would mean for Indigenous people.

“We want real power. We want real justice in this country,” she said.

“Everything else we’ve been offered for the last 200 years has no power.”

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley said she could not answer people’s questions about how the Voice would operate due to a lack of detail provided by the government.

“While the Coalition strongly supports constitutional recognition of our first Australians, it is a position we’ve had for 15 years,” Ms Ley said.

“Anthony Albanese has tied that constitutional recognition to a concept called the Voice which he cannot explain.” she said.

-AAP