The nation will head to the polls for its first referendum vote in 24 years, after the prime minister officially launched the campaign for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament on Wednesday.
As many reports had suggested, the date has been set for Saturday October 14.
Speaking before a rally of 400 people on the outskirts of Adelaide, Anthony Albanese urged voters to heed the call of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and approve the constitutional amendment.
"The idea for a Voice came from the people and it will be decided by the people," he told a rapturous crowd.
"Now, my fellow Australians, you can vote for it."
Yes supporters at the launch on Wednesday.
"Our government along with every single state and territory government have committed to it," he said.
"Faith groups and sporting codes and businesses and unions have embraced it. An army of volunteers are throwing all of their energy behind it."
The proceedings were opened by Uncle Major 'Moogy' Sumner AM, a respected Ngarrindjeri Elder.
The rally's location in Elizabeth, an outer northern suburb of the South Australian capital, reflects a belief that the state could be pivotal in the referendum's eventual success or defeat.
A referendum must clear the historically difficult barrier of a double majority to be approved: over 50 per cent of the nation's total votes and at least four out of six states (Territorians' votes will only count towards the national total).
With the Yes and No campaigns believing they have strong bases in Victoria and New South Wales, and Queensland and Western Australia respectively, it is expected South Australia and Tasmania will see heavy campaigning in the six remaining weeks before the vote.
However, the necessity for a high total vote for either side will require all states to remain in play for the campaigns.
Battle lines drawn
Advocates for both the Yes and No campaigns hit the ground running on Wednesday, pushing the respective cases for and against the Voice.
"I am excited," Senator Malarndirri McCarthy told the ABC.
"I think this is a significant step in our country if we can say yes."
Meanwhile, No campaign figurehead Nyunggai Warren Mundine said he was cautiously bouyed by polls reporting a strong no vote.
"I take them with a grain of salt," he told RN Breakfast.
"We’ve virtually sewn up Queensland and Western Australia, and so all we need is one more state and that will defeat the Yes campaign.”
Also campaigning against the Voice is the Blak Sovereign Movement. Fred Hooper, the Murrawarri People's Council chairperson is a member of the movement.
He questioned the oft-cited number of 80 per cent support for the Voice amongst the First Nations community.
"I call it a Voice of no choice," he told the ABC.
"We don't have a choice on whether it gets up ... and we don't have a choice in the legislation if the Yes vote gets up."
End in sight
With the referendum in sight, the culmination of a bruising 18 months of debate and contest over the Voice draws near.
Anthony Albanese's announcement at his election victory in May 2022 that implementing the Statement's requests in full would be a priority for the government set up the biggest political fight of this parliamentary term.
The Nationals and the One Nation party , and were , who instead argued for a legislated Voice.
Lidia Thorpe, then the Federal Green's First Nations spokesperson, expressed her ambivalence about the proposal, before , preferencing treaty before the Voice.
Accusations of racism have also dogged the campaign, with Mundine confirming volunteers had been let go for racist comments they made.
There has also been a marked increase in abuse online, and racist rhetoric in public spaces.
Meanwhile accusations of misinformation have also flown between the two campaigns.
Earlier this year, Mundine and Senator Jacinta Price had to defend themselves against accusations they had fed lines to citizens quoted on their website, and wrongly identified one such man as Vincent Lingiari's grandson.
Years in the making
The Uluru Statement from the Heart was delivered in May 2017. Source: Facebook / Facebook/The Uluru Statement from the Heart
The Statement was the product of a series of First Nations 'dialogues', which occurred in communities across the country between December 2016 and May 2017.
Delivered at Uluru on May 26, the Statement called for 'Voice, Treaty, Truth': a constitutionally-enshrined First Nations parliamentary advisory body; treaties between Indigenous communities and state and federal governments; and a truth-telling commission to officially examine the injustices and crimes of colonisation.
That project was itself an evolution of the decades-long movement for the constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the nation's founding document.
Stay informed on the 2023 Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum from across the SBS Network, including First Nations perspectives through NITV.
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