Leader of the National Party, David Littleproud, said he personally did not support the Liberal’s call to legislate a local and regional Indigenous Voices.
But Mr. Littleproud has concerns about whether a regional model could effectively help communities in remote areas.
He added that the National Party room would need to work through the detail for any final position.
“We'll work through it from the lived experience that we have from representing rural and remote Australia and making sure that we get their interests heard in what that policy setting might look like,” he told ABC Insiders on Sunday. “But we’ll be constructive in any negotiations with anybody.”
In response to concerns about a lack of action from an elected Coalition for Indigenous Australians, Mr. Littleproud said there would be “change” to how things currently stand, with the details to be worked out.
“I’m in the National party, and if the National Party doesn’t get comfort with [what the Liberal party puts forward], that’s what we stand for,” he said.
On Labor’s proposed national advisory body, Mr. Littleproud said bringing 24 representatives to Canberra would be repeating the same mistakes of the former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC).
“It might work in suburbs, in capital cities, but when you’re talking about representative bodies in rural and remote Australia, you’re talking about hundreds of thousands of square kilometres, hundreds of different diverse communities that have different challenges and different needs,” he said.
Instead, the National leader called for an intervention in the government bureaucracy.
Australians Remain Divided
While the federal Coalition is united in opposing the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, there are mixed views at the state level.New South Wales (NSW) Liberal leader Mark Speakman said he would vote yes because he believes the potential rewards outweighed the potential risks.
“I personally support a Voice in the Australian constitution,” he told reporters.
Federal Liberal Deputy Leader Sussan Ley said she disagreed with Mr. Speakman’s view.
“Mark Speakman’s a good person, and a great opposition leader in NSW and I support him, but I don’t agree with him on this issue,” she told Sky News Australia on Sunday.
“I think he’s got this one wrong.”
Tasmania’s Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockliff has also indicated he would vote yes in the referendum, while Western Australia’s Liberal leader Libby Mettam last week withdrew her support after seeing the backlash against the Aboriginal Heritage Culture law in her state.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australians “won’t have long to wait” for the referendum, which is expected to occur around October or November.
Various polls, including The Guardian’s Essential poll and RedBridge poll for News Corp, have all shown a downward trend in the “yes” vote for The Voice.
The Essential poll from Aug. 8 showed the “no” vote at 47 percent and “yes” vote at 43 percent, while results for RedBridge poll found the “yes” vote ahead at 56 percent.
Polling conducted in “teal” seats of Wentworth and Warringah, commissioned by the Liberal party, also showed that the progressive-leaning base also had more “no” voters.
But Mr. Albanese has dismissed polling results, saying it was just polling results pushed by the No campaign to “dampen enthusiasm.”
“The idea that, as I read in the paper yesterday, that the Liberal Party are polling at this stage in the cycle, are polling in Wentworth and Warringah is, quite frankly, fanciful,” he told ABC breakfast radio on Aug. 14.
“If people believe that, I’ve got a Harbour Bridge I can sell to people.”
