A-list actress Cate Blanchett has been criticised for plugging the Voice to Parliament during a promotional interview with the ABC.
The Australian movie star voiced her support for the referendum on Tuesday night, comparing Anthony Albanese’s ‘modest’ request to the suffragette movement.
‘Now can we imagine a world in Australia where women didn’t have the right to vote, where their voices weren’t heard? No, we can’t,’ she said.
‘Parliament is a place where the important issues of the day are debated and all points of view are listened to and the government, parliament makes legislation, they make decisions.
‘The parliament makes those decisions, but there is a certain voice that is never really in a nonpartisan way, in an eternal way, represented at that table and that’s an Indigenous voice and it is time we evolved to include all Australians.’
A-list actress Cate Blanchett has been criticised for plugging the Voice to Parliament during a promotional interview about her new movie in an ABC interview
But the comments – made just days after it was revealed the Yes23 campaign would steer clear of using famous faces to garner support – have been critcised as ‘preachy’ and ‘elite’.
Several critics online told her to ‘stick to acting’ while others said it was ‘insulting’ for her to comment on Australian politics while living overseas.
It is understood the two-time Oscar winner lives in the UK.
She said she is upset to see ‘fear being generated about a really positive moment’ and urged the Australian public to embrace constitutional recognition of a Voice to Parliament, insisting ‘the primacy of parliament is not under threat’.
Blanchett was interviewed alongside filmmaker Warwick Thornton while promoting their project, The New Boy, which debuted in June at Sydney Film Festival.
The movie is set in 1940s Australia and follows an Aboriginal boy in a remote Christian orphanage.
“We have this incredible opportunity to embrace our unique history, shared history, you know, with all of its missteps and all of its successes, to actually evolve into a really modern democracy, like New Zealand, like Canada,’ she said.
The Australian movie star voiced her support for the referendum on Tuesday night, comparing Anthony Albanese’s ‘modest’ request to the suffragette movement
Blanchett was interviewed alongside filmmaker Warwick Thornton while promoting their project, The New Boy, which debuted in June at Sydney Film Festival
The ABC also copped criticism for the interview.
One critic said it was ‘a Voice infomercial from Blanchett thinly disguised as a movie promo’.
‘I think we see through it. Who will they roll out next? Please stop stoking racial division and ramming this stuff down our throats 24/7.’
In April, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese intended to recruit Indigenous superstars to help promote the Voice, but the campaign has since shifted its focus to ordinary Australians.
A source in the campaign said fears were raised using celebrities would backfire and the shift was made because Australians don’t like being told what to do.
Indigenous sporting superstars such as Cathy Freeman, footballers Adam Goodes and Johnathan Thurston and tennis legends Evonne Goolagong-Cawley and Ash Barty were hand-selected earlier in the year to promote the Yes campaign.
The stars will still endorse the Voice, however they will not play a prominent role in the campaign.
The shift comes after it was revealed activists have been given an official script on how to make an ’emotional connection’ with voters to win over their support.
A nine-page Yes23 ‘how-to’ guide, obtained by Daily Mail Australia, offers 14 scenarios for tough conversations with voters and the best way to handle them in order to win their votes.
Prominent Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo with a volunteer during a campaign event, above. Guides handed to Yes campaigners to win over No and undecided voters have been revealed
The common concerns campaigners are expected to run into include criticisms it won’t make a practical difference in the lives of Aboriginal people, that ‘no one will explain how it will work’ and fears that it won’t address real issues for Indigenous people.
The scripted Yes campaign answers are focused on promoting the idea that the Voice is a ‘stepping stone on the path to justice’, will be above the ‘usual partisan politics’ and is an ‘important practical step’.
A referendum will be held between October and December, asking the Australian public whether a Voice to Parliament – an Indigenous advisory body – should be constitutionally enshrined.
Mr Albanese has described this as a ‘modest request from the heart’ and an ‘offer’ he hopes all Australians will embrace.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk