Ray Martin doubles down on controversial Voice remarks saying he stands by ‘dinosaur or a d***head’ line and would ‘say it again’

Veteran journalist and broadcaster Ray Martin has doubled down on his controversial Voice to Parliament comments, saying he stands by his “dinosaur or a d***head” line.

The former 60 Minutes and A Current Affair host gave a keynote speech at a Yes campaign launch last week, taking aim at the slogan, “if you don’t know, vote no”.

“If you don’t know, find out what you don’t know,” Martin said.

“What that asinine slogan is saying is if you’re a dinosaur or a d***head who can’t be bothered reading then vote No.”

The veteran broadcaster has been roundly criticised since the comments surfaced on Wednesday, with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton saying Martin “owes millions of Australians an apology”.

However, in an interview on Nine’s A Current Affair on Thursday night, the former host of the show said he would “stick by the language” and would “say it again”.

Martin also denied his comments had been directed at No voters, claiming it was fine for people to Vote No if they had researched the issue.

“I would never call No voters dinosaurs or anything else,” he said during the sometimes tense interview with Alison Langdon.

“What I said was this: What I found offensive is this slogan, this stupid slogan, ‘If you don’t know, vote no.’ Now that’s just the endorsement of ignorance.  

“If you don’t know find out what you don’t know. So read or talk to somebody informative. Don’t vote as an ignorant person, go and find out – that’s what I said was dinosaur stuff.

“If you look at the issue, and you talk to people and read about it, and you decide to vote No, that’s your call. That’s a democracy.

“But don’t tell me if you don’t know vote No, that’s just stupid.”

However, the former television host also claimed that the Voice referendum would impact Australia’s international reputation, and: “We can’t point the finger at the Chinese about their treatment of minorities if we vote No.”

When Langdon challenged Martin, arguing the language he had used was “inflammatory” and that as an experienced journalist he should have known it would have been “provocative”, the veteran broadcaster said: “That’s OK.”

“I don’t mind that. If it’s provocative in the sense of, if people are voting on this really important vote without bothering to check what it’s about. Then they’re dinosaurs,” Martin said.

“The reason you’re talking to me is we’re switched on. So maybe I did something that switch people on. Maybe I’m actually having people think about it.”

Responding to Martin’s A Current Affair interview, Sky News host Paul Murray said Martin’s comments were “dog whistling in a pretty obvious direction” and that the veteran broadcaster was misinterpreting the “if you don’t know, vote No” slogan.

“The slogan is actually about the reality that there is no legislation behind the referendum, that there is no guarantee what happens with the (high) court. We don’t know how many people, what the limit of the power is…. Because remember, the legislation has never been released,” Murray said.

“Don’t know, vote No is… We’re being asked to vote Yes or No on door number one. Do you know what is on the other side of the door – Ie. how it will work? If no, vote no.”

Former National Party leader John Anderson also hit back at Martin, describing his position as “absolutely untenable” and “really pathetic”.

“I think the precautionary principle is a very sound one, when you have to be very wary about what might be coming,” Mr Anderson said.

“Ray Martin must realize that you can’t know because we haven’t been told enough to know.”

“Not only we’re not being told enough to know what it will mean legally, what it will mean constitutionally, what the politicians might design out of it, what reach it might have, what are the areas that it… be able to speak on.”

“We actually don’t know how to work out constitutionally because we’re told on one hand, it’s a modest proposition. Yet on the other hand, this is the panacea is going to solve all indigenous problems.”

“I’m afraid his position is absolutely untenable. The only thing that is even worse, is the pathetic line ‘We’ve tried everything else so we better give this one a go’. That’s the line that’s really pathetic.”