Michael Long completes three-week walk to Canberra to campaign for Voice as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joins on final leg

Spirits were high outside Parliament House as leading members of the Voice to Parliament’s Yes campaign including the Prime Minister came out on the streets to welcome Michael Long as he completed the final leg of The Long Walk from Melbourne to Canberra on Thursday morning.

The AFL legend and Indigenous rights activist completed his on-foot journey 20 days after setting off from Melbourne Town Hall on August 27 with hundreds of supporters following his lead to campaign for the constitutionally enshrined recognition of First Nations people through a Voice.

The 2023 Long Walk, which was held in line with the upcoming referendum, also marks the event’s 20th anniversary and Mr Long’s second time completing the 650km voyage.

Anthony Albanese and Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney received Mr Long’s group, with the Prime Minister taking the opportunity to make an impassioned plea on the last sitting day of parliament ahead of next month’s referendum.

“Our journey since 1788 is just a fraction of the journey Indigenous Australians have had for the last 65,000 years. On October 14 we are being asked as Australians to walk a few short steps.” Mr Albanese said.

“He’s walked a long way, I was asked and invited to walk a short way… That is the opportunity that we have.

“To walk a few short steps to recognition, to walk a few short steps to establish an advisory committee. That’s what the Voice is, an advisory committee whose only power is the power of its ideas.

“If they’re good ideas, they’ll be accepted. If they’re not, they won’t be.”

Mr Long pioneered the trek in 2004 to keep the plight of Indigenous Australians on the national agenda rallying alongside people from both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal backgrounds from across the country.

He first made the walk to speak with then-prime minister John Howard following the abolition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.

“He (Long) has walked again because nearly two decades on the gap hasn’t closed in so many areas,” Mr Albanese said. “He knows when governments listen to people, you’ll get better outcomes.”

“Changing the Constitution is tough, we knew that from the beginning of this journey but it didn’t stop us from stepping out. Not for a day.

“Not for a day have I regretted that decision and not a single Indigenous leader who I’ve met has asked for anything other than to keep stepping forward.

“Michael Long has made a lot of steps. He’s a great Australian, who cares for his people but importantly he’s a great Australian who cares for his country.”

Months ahead of embarking on the walk, when the legislation for the Voice to Parliament passed the Senate’s Upper House in June, Mr Long had hailed the “significant moment” but emphasised there needed to be more support for the proposal from both political ends if it were to achieve desired outcomes.

“How do we get the best result? Ultimately, it’s going to come from our community, the Australians, who vote,” he told Sky News Australia.

“That work into the future, it’s got to be bipartisan, and I think we all have a role to play on both sides of the Parliament.”

On Thursday, Mr Long said in the 19 years since his meeting with John Howard, the gap between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians had still not closed: “In some areas it has widened, according to our Productivity Commission latest report.”

“That is why we set out from Melbourne again… a yes vote in the referendum on the voice to parliament will give Indigenous people the self-determination that we asked all those years ago. It will give this nation a new approach to closing the gap and it will allow this nation to embrace the fullness of our history.”

The Yes campaign has four full weeks ahead to maximise voter turnaround in its favour before Australians take to the polling booths on October 14.

South Australia and Tasmania are seen as the key states to swing voter sentiments towards the Yes side, but Mr Albanese says advocacy for the cause is equally important in all regions of the country.