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ABC News
ABC News
National
by political reporter Tom Lowrey

Anthony Albanese says No campaign is 'underestimating Australians' in lead-up to Voice referendum

Anthony Albanese will advocate for the Yes campaign on the Voice to Parliament in a speech on Monday. (ABC News: Nick Haggarty)

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will use a major speech to express his confidence the No campaign in the Voice referendum is "underestimating Australians", who will not "succumb to their appeals to fear".

He says Australia will rise the day after the referendum as "a great nation that has dared to become greater".

Anthony Albanese will deliver the Lowitja O'Donoghue Oration in Adelaide on Monday night, using the speech to argue for the Yes campaign and contest arguments put forward by opponents of a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Federal parliament spent last week debating a bill that would enable the Voice referendum, with the Coalition largely hardening in its opposition.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton told parliament the Voice would "re-racialise our nation" and have an "Orwellian effect where all Australians are equal, but some Australians are more equal than others".

In excerpts of Mr Albanese's speech provided to media, the prime minister says he is confident the No campaign won't find traction among most Australians.

"Yes, there are scare campaigns. But what those campaigns have in common is that they underestimate Australians so radically," he is expected to say.

"Australians won't succumb to their appeals to fear and their ever-more ludicrous invitations to jump at our own shadows."

Mr Albanese draws comparisons with the 1967 referendum, predicting Australians will take a similar approach more than half a century later.

"Who do we want to be when we wake up the morning after this referendum?" he is expected to say.

"I believe we will rise with a stronger sense of ourselves.

"A great nation that has dared to become greater – not just to ourselves but to the world."

Debate on the Voice bill will resume in federal parliament on Tuesday, with a final vote in the lower house expected this week.

More than 110 lower house MPs are likely to speak to the bill before it is eventually passed.

The bill then moves to the Senate where Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe on Sunday said she would likely abstain from the final vote in that chamber.

Liberal MP Ted O'Brien on Sunday accused Mr Albanese of withholding detail on how the Voice would operate, in an effort to focus the campaign on emotion around the issue.

"I think it's a deliberate ploy on the part of the prime minister to ensure that this entire campaign over the months ahead is a highly charged one," he told Sky News.

"That's not good for Australia."

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