The findings of this week's ACM Voice survey which indicate the referendum is struggling, particularly in regional Australia, won't surprise anybody who has been following this issue.
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Its results are consistent with other polls and surveys, which have been tracking a steady decline in the "yes" vote for many months.
If the referendum was to be held this weekend the "no" camp would almost certainly prevail. Even if the Voice did get up, it could be by such a narrow margin Australians would be left divided, bitter and angry.
That would be a terrible state of affairs. It is not where we want to be in the third decade of the 21st century.
Surely 235 years after European settlement Australia should be much further along the road to constitutional recognition, reconciliation, Indigenous advocacy and self-determination, and Makarrata than this.
What sets the ACM survey, conducted by this company's research arm Chi Squared, apart is its focus on rural and regional Australia; the nation's heartland and home to the majority of Indigenous Australians and a large number of people with direct links to the early settlers and pioneers.
Once you venture beyond the city limits, into what Barnaby Joyce calls the land of "weatherboard and iron", the world view changes. Living in the bush can be a hard scrabble. It encourages a well-developed sense of pragmatism.
If country people don't understand something or can't see the need for it, they are quick to move on to more pressing issues. This is arguably one of, but not necessarily the only, reasons support for "yes" is lower in the bush than the big cities by a country mile.
While a smaller survey by ACM of 1060 readers across its mastheads just before Australia Day found 63 per cent would vote "yes", that figure has crashed.
The latest survey, which had 10,131 respondents, showed support for "yes" of just 38 per cent. Support for "no" had risen from 24 per cent to 55 per cent. The "undecideds" had halved from 14 per cent to seven per cent.
The survey identified a major reason for this collapse is a widespread belief the federal government has failed to provide enough information for people to feel able to make an informed decision.
The Coalition's "if you don't understand it then vote no" campaign is cutting through much more strongly than anything the "yes" campaign has done to date.
Attempts by some in the "yes" camp to dismiss concerns being voiced by people in the regions as indicators of latent - and not so latent - racism have done far more harm than good.
So too have relatively lacklustre attempts by parliamentarians such as Linda Burney to sell the "yes" case by appealing to Abraham Lincoln's "angels of our better nature".
Her recent insistence the Voice would not be able to provide advice on changing Australia Day when it clearly could and almost certainly would was an own goal the LNP, who are determined to see the referendum fail, seized upon with glee and alacrity.
Opponents of the Voice are determined to knock it on the head regardless of the irreparable damage this would do to the cause of reconciliation and national unity.
The only way this can be prevented is if the "yes" proponents dramatically lift their game.
The ACM survey suggests people are willing to listen and to learn. But before they commit to voting "yes" they want to know what they are voting for and why.
It is time for the Albanese government to put some flesh on the bone. The Republic referendum failed in large part because of too much detail. It would be tragic if this referendum fails because of a lack of it.
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