Rove McManus has made an impassioned plea for Australians to “be decent” and vote yes in the Voice to Parliament referendum.
Millions of Australians will vote on Saturday whether or not to include a consultative body for Indigenous Australians in the constitution.
The comedian revealed to The Project panel that he had “become angry” during a meeting on Friday, claiming The Voice had been “manipulated”.
“It’s very easy for Peter Dutton to say it’s not properly explained that we don’t have a compelling case. It’s there,” he said.
It is hoped The Voice will give First Nations people, whose life expectancy is eight years shorter than that of other Australians and suicide rates twice as high, a chance to weigh in on laws that affect them.
Mr McManus then revealed what he thought was “mind-blowing” about those considering voting no, after a conversation with his nine-year-old daughter.
“She said, ‘I can’t believe someone is voting no,’ and that’s what breaks my heart,” he said.
“What are we doing to each other? This is a real moment where we can be proud and show how wonderful this country is.
The three-time Gold Logie award winner also addressed those who have criticized Voice for not going far enough to address the issues facing Indigenous Australians, saying “in many ways, of course, it’s not not the case “.
Millions of Australians will vote on Saturday whether or not to include a constitutional advisory body for Indigenous Australians.
“You can’t just get to the top of Mount Everest, you have to climb slowly and that’s the only way to do it,” he said.
He urged Australians to think about how they wanted to vote and “just be decent for once” in order to bring change to First Nations people.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also made an emotional appeal on Friday, telling voters that “kindness costs nothing”.
“It costs nothing to Australians who show kindness, who think with their hearts and with their heads when they walk into the voting booth tomorrow,” Albanese said.
“This is a time when Australians have the opportunity to demonstrate the generosity of spirit that I see in the Australian character,” he told reporters in Adelaide.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton used the final day before the vote to warn that the proposed consultative body would be “a very significant and damaging change to our system of government”.
“I think there’s a lot of regret in terms of the division that was created, the money that was spent and the lack of a practical outcome that was going to be achieved for Indigenous Australians,” he said. he declared on ABC radio.
