AUSTRALIANS are set to vote on October 14 on a proposed law to create a so-called Indigenous Voice to parliament in the nation’s first referendum in a generation.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced the referendum date, triggering just over six weeks of intensifying campaigning.

If passed, it would enshrine in the constitution a position aimed at giving the nation’s most disadvantaged ethnic minority more say on government policy.

Indigenous Australians account for 3.8 per cent of the population and they die around eight years younger than average.

Mr Albanese urged people to vote “yes” as polls showed more than 80 per cent of Australia’s Indigenous population — Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples — intended to do so.

Mr Albenese told 400 supporters in Adelaide: “Let’s be very clear about the alternative: because voting ‘no’ leads nowhere. It means nothing changes.

“Voting ‘no’ closes the door on this opportunity to move forward. I say today: don’t close the door on constitutional recognition, don’t close the door on listening to communities to get better results.” 

The prime minister added: “Don’t close the door on an idea that came from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves, and don’t close the door on the next generation of Indigenous Australians. Vote ‘yes’.” 

Opponents of the measure say the Voice would be the biggest ever change in Australia’s democracy and would divide the nation along racial lines.

Indigenous opposition Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said: “It is evident to me that this elite proposal is about division in our country. And it is that old rule of divide and conquer that I can’t stand for.

“I’m not going to allow a line to run straight through the middle of my family within our constitution,” Ms Price added, referring to her mixed-race heritage.