Former Minister Quits Liberal Party Over Voice Stance

Former Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt at the announcement of the targets for the Closing The Gap initiative at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on July 30, 2020. Sean Davey/Getty Images

Former Indigenous Minister Ken Wyatt has quit the centre-right Liberal Party following the party’s decision to oppose changing the country’s Constitution to include an Indigenous advisory body.

“I still believe in the Liberal Party values but I don’t believe in what the Liberals have become,” he told the West Australian newspaper.

“Aboriginal people are reaching out to be heard but the Liberals have rejected their invitation.”

Former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull applauded the move.

“He is a wise history-making leader and now with a referendum to win. We will be voting YES with millions of Australians,” he wrote on Twitter.

Wyatt was the first Indigenous person to hold the portfolio and reportedly handed in his resignation on April 6 after opposition leader Peter Dutton announced the party’s decision.

A day earlier, Dutton said the party voted “overwhelmingly” against enshrining an Indigenous advisory body into the Australian Constitution, but was supportive of local and regional Aboriginal representative bodies (or Voices) and changing the preamble of the founding document to recognise Aboriginal Australians.

Sometime this year, Australians will go to the polls to decide whether a near-permanent advisory body to Parliament—featuring 24 Indigenous members—should be embedded into the Constitution.

The members would then be allowed to make “representations” to the executive on matters affecting Indigenous peoples.

Opposition to Liberal Party Stance Receives Plenty of Media Attention

Wyatt’s decision comes as a small section of the Liberal Party continues their opposition to the party’s decision (receiving plenty of positive media attention in the process).

“Sometimes I do consider [resigning] and then I consider the people in the Liberal Party that share my views ... people that I consider to be like-minded Liberals,” said Tasmanian MP Bridget Archer, in an interview with ABC Radio National on April 6.

“I stay because I know that I am not the only person that thinks that way and I stay because I think the Liberal Party is at a crossroads.”

While New South Wales Senator Andrew Bragg said he maintained an “open mind” on The Voice.

“I note the Liberal Party’s position to oppose the Constitutional Amendment on the Indigenous Voice,” he said in a statement. “This position is not binding for all Members and Senators in the Liberal Party.”

Concerns Remain Over The Voice and Its Powers

While The Voice has received much support from progressive-leaning politicians, media outlets, and Indigenous bodies—the proposal does have its detractors who warn of legislative overreach and no realistic benefit from an extra layer of bureaucracy.

Constitutional legal expert Greg Craven said the move could open up the door to lawsuits.

“If you get into a situation, for example, The Voice hasn’t yet made a representation on some important view and the Commonwealth hasn’t told The Voice and given it that chance—then legally it is entirely practical for someone to take a challenge to court to stop that action until The Voice has made a representation,” he told 2GB radio in March.

While Indigenous leader Warren Mundine, former Labor Party president and now-committee member of No campaign against The Voice, said it would have no practical effect on Aboriginal communities.

“What is the benefit of it? Is it going to stop situations like Alice Springs? Because Alice Springs is just the tip of the iceberg, and the government can’t even respond to that,” he previously told The Epoch Times in reference to rampant youth crime in the central Australian town.

Meanwhile, former Senator Eric Abetz welcomed the opposition’s stance saying it had finally “taken a stand on something.”

“The temptation to go with the ‘zeitgeist,’ the media mayhem, and the endless virtue signallers to avoid the foreseeable criticism was a test of fortitude and resolve so absent from Australia’s centre-right Coalition for the past half dozen years,” he wrote in The Epoch Times.

“The strong sense is they’ve finally taken a stand on something based on principle, not tactics alone. But such a stand comes with risks—high risks.”