Australia news live: Coalition seeks ‘constant debate, constant argument’ on constitutional recognition, Pearson says

But Indigenous leader says he is confident ‘underdog’ yes campaign can prevail in voice referendum. Follow today’s live news updates

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Asked what a no vote will say about Australia, Pearson says he withhold judgement until the night of the referendum.

I will make that judgement the day after the referendum. I believe we still have the capacity to do the right thing. I tell you one thing, though, I just don’t believe when the hand of friendship and reconciliation is extended from Indigenous people that at the end of the day, their love will be unrequited. I can’t believe that. I cannot believe we’re still in an Australia where that hand would be just slapped aside. This unrequited love is my worst nightmare. I just don’t believe Australians are capable of that at this time in our history.

The separation was there in 1901. The original separation, the original equality was in our constitution in 1901. What we’re going to do in 2023 is fix that exclusion, fix the omission, fix the lack of recognition and when we do that, our constitution will be whole. We will complete the commonwealth of Australia and it will be a great thing to do.

In relation to the scope issue, David, our opponents in the no campaign said that somehow we’d be dictating policy on nuclear submarines. That wasn’t reasonable. That wasn’t a fair representation of the scope.

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