Television icon Ray Martin has labelled No voters as ‘dinosaurs and d***heads’ in a scathing speech to a cheering crowd of Voice supporters.
The veteran journalist and presenter ripped into No voters during the Yes rally at Marrickville’s Factory Theatre in Sydney‘s inner west on September 28.
Video obtained by Daily Mail Australia shows Martin taking aim at the No side’s ‘If you don’t know, vote No’ slogan, saying: ‘If you don’t know, find out what you don’t know.
‘What that slogan is saying is if you’re a dinosaur or d***head who can’t be bothered reading, then vote No.’
TV icon Ray Martin launches an extraordinary attack on No voters – lashing them as ‘dinosaurs and d***heads’ in a scathing speech to a cheering Yes crowd in front of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
Martin ripped into No voters during a promotional event at Marrickville’s Factory Theatre in Sydney ‘s inner west on September 28
Martin then went on to slam the No campaign’s primary argument that there is not enough information on how the Voice will operate, arguing such detail ‘simply don’t matter’.
‘They never did matter. Honestly, they’re irrelevant,’ he said.
‘Over the next 10, 20 or 30 years, no matter who is in government, the details will change, as will the members of the Voice delegation according to the needs and priorities and policies that are meant to close that bloody gap.
‘You can’t write all that into the constitution.’
The speech was given in front of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and was held in his electorate of Grayndler.
The next day, Mr Albanese described Martin’s address as ‘very powerful’.
Elsewhere in the address, Martin made a heartfelt plea to voters, speaking from his 60 years of experience as a journalist covering politics.
‘Every Prime Minister I can remember when he or she, in Julia Gillard’s case, write their memoirs, they always seem to say that their greatest failing, their greatest regrets, was in Aboriginal Affairs, their failure to close the gap. They say it every time.
‘It’s no good talking about what you didn’t do after you leave office. Do something while you’re in the Lodge. Something that makes a difference. And that’s what Albo is trying to do now.
‘What we’ve done for 235 years, often with the best of intentions and spending billions of your taxpayer dollars, is leave Indigenous Australians as the poorest, sickest, most suicidal, most imprisoned, jobless homeless people in our rich society.
‘With poverty and third-world diseases like scabies, for God’s sake, that rubs their skin raw and trachoma that sends them blind five times the rate of white Australians, and rheumatic heart disease that kills so many Aboriginal children, guesstimate of two kids a week. And an overall life expectancy which is 20 years less than the rest of Australians.
‘This referendum is clearly not about dividing Australia. It’s about caring.’
Video obtained by Daily Mail Australia shows Martin taking aim at the No side’s ‘If you don’t know, vote No’ slogan, saying: ‘If you don’t know, find out what you don’t know
Mr Albanese described Martin’s speech as ‘very powerful’ the day after the event, which was held on September 28
One of two bodies that makes up the official No campaign, Fair Australia, took offence at Martin’s comments about ‘dinosaurs and d**kheads’.
A spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia Martin’s comments were another attack on decent Australians.
‘Having been told we’re ”racist” and ”stupid”, Australians voting No can now add ”d**khead” and ”dinosaur” to the list of insults spat at us by the Yes campaign.
‘The sneering elites from the Yes campaign are dead set on dividing Australians.
‘These elitists are addicted to insulting us, and just can’t stop sneering down their noses at ordinary Australians.’
The campaign called on Martin to apologise and for Mr Albanese to condemn the comments.
Daily Mail Australia has sought comment from the Prime Minister’s office about his view of Martin’s specific comments.
The PM also addressed the crowd at the event, describing the Voice proposal as ‘a handshake, a handout of friendship’.
‘Politics has sadly driven this campaign,’ he said.
‘No MP really thinks the Voice would advise the Reserve Bank on interest rates, but we’ve had those questions asked in parliament as if they’re legitimate – Australia deserves better.
‘This is an enormous opportunity for Australia.
‘No is what we’ve got now, there’s so much to gain and nothing to lose by voting Yes.’
Martin’s comments divided Australians when video of the speech surfaced. Some were inspired and vowed to stand with him and vote Yes on October 14.
Other, No-aligned voters fired up. ‘The details DO matter, which is why everyone is voting No,’ one social media user said.
‘This video has made me vote No,’ another claimed.
Australians will head to the polls on October 14 for the first referendum in 24 years
The PM also addressed the crowd at the event, describing the Voice proposal as ‘a handshake, a handout of friendship’
Martin has a long history of involvement with Indigenous affairs. He was a member of the National Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation for 10 years in his role as chairman of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation.
The one-time host of Channel Nine programs including Midday and The Ray Martin Show discovered in the 1990s his great, great grandmother was a Kamilaroi Indigenous woman.
The latest criticism of No voters comes after prominent Indigenous campaigner and Yes vote advocate Professor Marcia Langton faced backlash for accusing the No campaign of being based in ‘base racism’ or ‘sheer stupidity’.
Professor Langton made the remarks at a forum in Bunbury, Western Australia, and said Australians need to apply more scrutiny to claims by the No campaign.
‘Every time the No cases raise their arguments, if you start pulling it apart you get down to base racism – I’m sorry to say that’s where it lands – or sheer stupidity,’ Prof Langton said.
Prof Langton later insisted she was not calling No voters racist or stupid, but just that the arguments being used in the No campaign were.
And No events have become lightning rods for attacks across the country. In South Australia, protesters branded attendees ‘racist dogs’, while others were called ‘scum’ at a similar event in Queensland.
A retired university professor also allegedly spat at a No campaigner in Cooma recently.
Despite the incidents and dire Newspoll and YouGov polling results, Yes campaigners have some reason to hope, with an Essential poll showing a small swing of two percentage points back toward Yes this week.
The poll found 43 per cent of its 1,125 respondents will vote Yes, up two from a previous survey a fortnight earlier. The swing was within the margin of error.
Martin discovered in the 1990s his great, great grandmother was a Kamilaroi Indigenous woman and he himself was a member of the National Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation for 10 years in his role as chairman of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation