The federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has launched his strongest attack yet against changing Australia’s Constitution to entrench Indigenous interests.
Dutton said the Indigenous Voice to Parliament would take Australia “backwards not forwards” and called it “regressive, not progressive.”
“It should be very clear to Australians by now that the prime minister is dividing our country not uniting us,” he told Parliament on May 22.
Debate on The Voice continues following the release of a parliamentary committee report which recommended the passage of the Constitutional Alteration Bill.
The Bill authorises the holding of a national referendum in Australia to decide on whether to embed The Voice into the Constitution. Debate is expected to be prolonged with around 70 federal MPs speaking on the Bill
Dutton, of the Liberal-National Coalition, attacked the parliamentary committee’s inquiry into the Bill calling it a “kangaroo court” while noting that past referendums had been preceded by conventions where advocates and opponents would discuss the details.
“What’s most curious about this referendum is the government prefers Australians to be incurious. When Australians have raised reasonable and legitimate concerns about the Voice model, the government dismisses them as a scare campaign, as nonsense, as noise and misinformation,” he said.
He also warned that there was no “return policy” if The Voice succeeded and there would be new procedural rights granted “only on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.”
Labor Indigenous Minister Disagrees
In response, the Labor government’s Indigenous Minister Linda Burney rejected Dutton’s claims saying it was part of a “misinformation” and “scare campaign.”“In 2023, it is time for recognition. It’s time for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to the Parliament because [they] have not enjoyed the same opportunities of so many other Australians,” she told Parliament.
“Constitutional recognition through a voice, to the parliament, is about giving Indigenous Australians a say in matters that affect us. It means delivering structural change.”
She also denied that the process for The Voice had not been rushed and had been developed over several years with the support of Indigenous communities.
Later this year, Australians will go to the polls to vote on whether to alter their Constitution to include a near-permanent Indigenous advisory body.
The 24 members of this body will be voted for by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders throughout the country and will have the power to make “representations” to the Parliament, the executive, and the wider public service.
Will The Voice Work, Though?
Yet some Indigenous leaders have been reluctant to back The Voice precisely because they believe it will have no impact on the ground.“We have tried Indigenous representative bodies, Indigenous advisory bodies, and Indigenous consulting bodies multiple times over the decades. None have lifted Indigenous people out of poverty. None have ‘Closed the Gap,’” he added.
While former High Court Justice Ian Callinan said, the debate on The Voice had descended into more negative territory.
“There’s a nasty feel about this,” he told a Samuel Griffith Society event on May 17.
“But in addition to the nastiness, there’s a kind of presumptuousness, condescension, [and] a paternalism.”
“All of you and I have been told by the Yes side that we must vote ‘yes,'” he added.
