Today host Brooke Boney delivers a message to Aboriginal Voice to Parliament No Voters

A native TV star has expressed her views on Anthony Albanese’s proposed vote to parliament, stating that a ‘no’ vote in the upcoming referendum would be ‘quite damaging’.

Channel Nine Today presenter Brooke Boney shared her thoughts on the proposal for an Aboriginal advisory body – which every Australian will vote on in a referendum later this year – in an essay published on Thursday.

Speaking to people considering voting no in the upcoming referendum, including native voters, Ms Boney said: ‘It’s okay if people want to vote no, but I hope those people have a plan to improve the situation if the referendum fails. ‘

“There are also some Aboriginal people who want to vote no,” Ms Boney wrote.

“Their argument is that they don’t want to be documented or part of a system that has been oppressing Aboriginal people for a few hundred years.

“They ask why this should be any different and why they should rely on a system that has let us down so many times.”

Ms Boney said this cohort ‘has every right to feel let down and ignored because it has been that way too often and for too long’.

But she urged those in the No camp – whether indigenous or not – to “gather as much information as possible” and “look at how we’ve done things in the past and then decide if you think that we can do better’.

Ms Boney added that ‘we have to be realistic about how far-reaching the impact a no result would be on our country’.

It comes after Secretary of State Linda Burney’s National Press Club speech on Wednesday, where she shared a pointed message to those considering No.

“The No campaign… is importing Trump-style politics to Australia. The goal is to polarize, to divide our society by making false claims,” ​​she said.

Don’t let the No campaign get away with Trump-like politics. Don’t let them divide us.’

Anthony Albanese with Voice Advocates at a media conference following the passing of laws enabling the referendum later this year

Ms Boney (pictured left with her mother) said: ‘we have to be realistic about how far-reaching the impact a no result would be on our country’

In her article, Ms Boney warned No voters that they risk coming across as “afraid of change” or “not at all interested in helping Aboriginal people” if they did not have enough reasons why policies to help Indigenous people were not had taken place. implemented anyway.

“My fear is that nothing will change, and we’ll wake up the day after and Aboriginal policies will be lumped together in the same way they’ve always been and will continue to be expensive and not as effective as they could be,” he said. she. wrote.

Ms Boney also reflected on how “joyful” it would have felt for her grandparents after the successful 1967 referendum in which Australians overwhelmingly voted to amend the constitution so that the Commonwealth could legislate for Aboriginal people and include them in the census could record.

“If the opposite were to happen and we had to walk down the street the next day, we wouldn’t have the luxury of seeing people’s thoughts that might be, ‘No, but… I’d like to see this happen or that happen’ ,” she wrote.

“All we would see is No and that would be quite damaging.”