AUSTRALIA’S prime minister said today he was confident that Indigenous Australians overwhelmingly support a proposal to create their own representative body to advise Parliament and have it enshrined in the constitution.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s remarks came as Tiwi Islanders cast their votes on making the constitutional change. 

They were among the first in early polling that began this week in remote Outback communities, many with significant Indigenous populations.

The October 14 referendum is to decide on having the so-called Indigenous Voice to Parliament enshrined in the constitution.

“I’m certainly confident that Indigenous Australians will overwhelmingly be voting ‘yes’ in this referendum,” Mr Albanese told reporters in Adelaide. 

He blamed disinformation and misinformation campaigns for polls showing that a majority of Australians oppose the Voice.

Some observers argue the referendum was doomed when the major conservative opposition parties decided to oppose the Voice. 

Opposition lawmakers argue it would divide the nation along racial lines and create legal uncertainty over the interpretation of the Voice’s constitutional powers.

The prime minister said: “What has occurred during this campaign is a lot of information being put out there — including by some who know that it is not true.”

No referendum has ever passed without bipartisan support of the major political parties in the constitution’s 122-year history.