TRANSCRIPT
14,400 kilometres and six months later, marathon runner and former Liberal M-P Pat Farmer has finished his Run for the Voice.
Running across the country with a purpose - to encourage Australians to support an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
He was greeted at Uluru by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Chief Minister for the Northern Territory Natasha Fyles, and the Member for Lingiari Marion Scrymgour.
Mr Farmer says he feels it's been his purpose in life to complete this journey for the cause.
"I have to say when I crossed over the 40-kilometre to go mark yesterday and I could see Uluru in the distance, I got my first glimpse of this crimson beautiful, beautiful rock on in the distance I broke into tears I just couldn't believe that I was finally at this destination and there is something, something very spiritual about this place behind us. There's no, no two ways about it. It's like my eyes connected with my soul when I saw it and I felt my purpose in life."
The Prime Minister says he hopes Mr Farmer has inspired Australians to vote Yes.
"We thought it was pretty ambitious someone running 14,400 kilometres. He has provided an inspiration for Australians. And what he has done is in running 14-and-a-half thousand kilometres, to ask his fellow Australians to just walk a few metres, walk into a polling booth and write Y- E-S on the ballot paper on the referendum."
New polling by Roy Morgan Research suggests support for the Yes vote is increasing, but the No side remains ahead.
The survey of 905 Australians conducted last week found 50 per cent of people will vote No, while 45 per cent say they will vote Yes.
Support for a Yes vote has increased 8 per cent since Roy Morgan's last survey, while 5 per cent of voters remain undecided.
Leading No campaigner Warren Mundine told the A-B-C he won't be celebrating if the referendum is defeated.
"On the Saturday night, I've got a speech have lined out for myself. I've been thinking about it, working on it. And whether it's a yes or no, it's the same speech. It's about us coming together. Let's say no gets up. It's not about a celebration, it's about thanking people for their work and the Australian public, it's about putting the hand out and wanting us all to work together and then move forward."
The survey also suggests a majority of men say they'll vote No, while there are slightly more women who say they'll vote Yes.
So, with polling suggesting the No vote will succeed, members of the Yes campaign are making last minute pitches to voters across the country.
Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy is campaigning in Melbourne.
"First Nations people, and all those people who believe in seeing a Voice enshrined in the Constitution are walking strong. We never give up right up until 6pm on the 14th of October, we firmly believe Australians will see how important it is and how beautiful it is to recognise our history going back 65,000 years and the need for a Voice to the Parliament and the executive. Where First Nations people can give advice on matters that impact First Nations people."
Nationals M-P and No campaigner Barnaby Joyce told the A-B-C he believes the polling is accurate, especially in regional Australia.
"Obviously, I'm in a regional area. And as the polling suggests, I believe regional areas seem to be a very strong No. Now, I could say something else. But that's, I think that's the honest truth. I know that's not going to be the case and in inner urban areas, but it's really important that we have one thing in common that we want to get to Sunday and no matter what the result, try and mend fences as quickly as possible because this is a real concern to us. It's been incredibly divisive in regional areas. As someone explained to me, it's like someone talking to you about your marriage. It's just a conversation you don't want to have."
Patrick Dodson is a W-A Senator and the Special Envoy for Reconciliation and Implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
He says First Nations people can't afford a No outcome.
"All Australian people to support the simple proposition, a very humble proposition, to create the recognition of the Aboriginal people in the Constitution, and to give them an instrument, a voice, a body through which they can say, to the parliament and to the executive, what the concerns are and what the ways forward are for us to go because we're bogged down in a cul-de-sac of going nowhere at the moment. We know that from the closing the gap statistics and all the other social indicators. We're going nowhere and the No campaign wants to stay there. We can't afford to stay there because that doesn't take the country forward. It doesn't redress the serious problems that the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander peoples live under every day of the week."
Despite the Yes campaign insisting there's still time to convince undecided voters to vote Yes, the No campaign appears focused on life after the referendum.
No campaigner Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price told Channel Nine she'll feel relieved once it's over.
"Depending on what the result is, I guess there's still a lot of work to be done going forward. There's a lot of work in terms of trying to pull us together again, because this referendum in the whole exercise has been so incredibly divisive. And it concerns me sometimes what's going on in some of the booths, but I'm hearing that those that have been volunteering for the no vote, have been getting treated really terribly."
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