Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.<\/p>\n
When Kevin Rudd apologised to the Stolen Generations it was a moment of national unity that brought Australia together.<\/p>\n
Fifteen years later, in the 15 months since Anthony Albanese announced the Voice to parliament referendum, the prime minister has frequently invoked the apology and urged Australians towards a Yes vote and national unity.<\/p>\n
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Anthony Albanese campaigning for the Voice at Uluru, flanked by Labor MP Marion Scrymgour, ultra-marathon runner and former Liberal MP Pat Farmer and NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Bill Blair<\/cite><\/p>\n Standing alongside Indigenous leader Noel Pearson and Labor MP Marion Scrymgour, NT chief minister Natasha Fyles and former Liberal MP and ultra-marathon runner Pat Farmer \u2013 who had just completed a lap of Australia \u2013 at the base of Uluru, the birthplace of the Voice, he reached for the comparison once more on Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be like the apology to the stolen generations, people will wonder what the fear campaign was about,\u201d he said. But the grim set of the Yes campaigners\u2019 faces at Uluru \u2013 where the proposal for a Voice was born \u2013 suggested otherwise.<\/p>\n The Uluru Statement from the Heart speaks plainly about \u201cthe torment of our powerlessness\u201d and the challenges Indigenous Australians have faced since white settlement.<\/p>\n Time and again, Yes campaigners such as Albanese and Pearson have insisted they have not contemplated defeat and what it will mean for Australia. They have put their heart into campaigning for what would be a historic change to Australia\u2019s founding document.<\/p>\n But on Tuesday evening, when the prime minister climbed down into the red dirt at Uluru, joined hands with local women and listened to song, the enormity of the moment met the prime minister and his tears briefly betrayed him.<\/p>\n \u201cI found last night an incredibly humbling experience,\u201d he said on Wednesday, as he reflected on the emotional moment. \u201cThe fact the song that the women were singing was about rising up to the occasion. Australians can rise to this occasion.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are a great country, the greatest country on Earth will be a little bit greater if we wake up on Sunday, having recognised [Indigenous] Australians.\u201d<\/p>\n That moment in the red earth was, perhaps, the moment the prime minister truly realised his own powerlessness to stop a successful No vote.<\/p>\n Many words will be written in the days and weeks ahead about why the Voice referendum succeeded or failed.<\/p>\n If the opinion polls are correct, then Saturday shapes not as the moment of national unity that Albanese, Pearson and other Voice supporters worked towards.<\/p>\n Instead, it will be one of division and disappointment for a great many people, not least the majority of Indigenous Australians who support the Voice and who have had the hand of friendship turned away.<\/p>\n Albanese may be powerless to stop a No vote. Australia may well miss out on a second apology moment, let alone a moment as unifying as the 1967 referendum.<\/p>\n But it is within the prime minister\u2019s power to start bringing Australians back together on Saturday night, whether the referendum is won or lost, after more than a year of bitter division and debate.<\/p>\n