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Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has lashed the motives behind the proposed Voice to Parliament, arguing it will only cause further division in Australia and issuing a dire warning to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
In an impassioned address to a more intimate setting at the National Press Club of Australia, the shadow minister for Indigenous affairs on Thursday afternoon explained why she believed the Voice would be a letdown for Indigenous Australians if they voted in its favour, slamming it for being “built on lies”.
Ms Price also turned up the heat on Mr Albanese, who is already facing an uphill battle to get the Voice over the line based on recent polling.
A journalist asked the Senator whether she could one day lead the Nationals, given her popularity among those in the party.
“Firstly, I’m very grateful for my leaders and their leadership in backing me all the way to stand in opposition to the Voice that our Nationals party room came out early to say No to a divided country,” she replied, before taking a swipe at Mr Albanese’s position.
“And I would suggest that it’s Albanese’s leadership that’s on the line here going forward.”
In her speech, the Senator used Marcia Langton’s controversial comments on Sunday where she claimed the No party’s tactics were “based in racism” as an example of the division that has risen from the Voice debate.
“That division has now seen the no campaign branded as being base racism. And sheer stupidity. When, in fact, what would be racist is segmenting our nation into us and them,” she said.
“And you have to say it would also be stupidity to divide a nation when it has been growing ever more cohesive. To split it along fractures of race, rather than try to bring it closer together.”
Ms Price pinpointed four key “lies” that she claimed the Voice is “built on” stating that the most marginalised people in the Indigenous community “deserve the truth”.
The first “lie” is the assertion Indigenous Australians do not currently have a Voice, Ms Price said.
“We have been told by the Indigenous Minister for Indigenous Australians that Indigenous people do not get a say on policies or the decisions being made on our behalf,” she said.
“I am one of 11 Indigenous voices currently in parliament and I will not accept the lie.”
The Senator flagged the second “lie” is the “claim that this is an invitation from Indigenous people to the rest of Australia”.
“To say this has come from First Nations people, plays into backwards, neo-colonial, racial stereotyping, suggesting that all Aboriginal people think the same, feel the same, and want for the same things,” she said.
The third “lie” refers to the Voice being an advisory body.
“If the Prime Minister truly intended for this body to be a simple advisory body, as he, his government and the advocates of the Voice repeatedly tell us, then it would have been stipulated in the proposed chapter,” she said.
“Instead, proposed chapter nine section 129 part one determines there shall be a body called The Voice.
“Part two specifies it shall have the power to make representations to the parliament and executive government on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”
For her fourth and final point, the Senator took aim at the government for what it does not yet know.
“No matter what the government, the advocates, and the activists say about what the Voice will or won’t do, the fact is they don’t know,” she said.
“The government have repeatedly promised equal representation, gender balance, and youth representation. But these are not promises the government can make. The reality is that they don’t know what form the Voice may make in the future.”
Recent polling suggests the votes lie in favour of a win for the No party one month out from the referendum with national support for the Voice dropping from 46 per cent to 43 per cent according to SMH’s survey results published on Monday.
Support has been declining for months in a concerning development for one of the Prime Minister’s signature policies.
The referendum comes exactly one month on from Ms Price’s NPC address, on Saturday, October 14 as Yes advocates aim to buck the trend of failed referendums in the country with a record of 8 from 44 passing in Australia.
