Category: The Voice

Jacinta Price to Spearhead Opposition to the Voice as New Shadow Indigenous Minister

Senator Jacinta Price will now spearhead the Liberal-National Coalition’s opposition to the Indigenous Voice to Parliament after being elevated to the shadow Indigenous Minister portfolio. Price steps in for MP Julian Leeser, who moved to the shadow Cabinet backbench a week earlier because he would not support the Coalition’s position. Price’s accession comes amid a…


Indigenous Senator Defends Opposition’s Comments on Widespread Child Abuse in Alice Springs

Indigenous Senator Kerrynne Liddle has defended comments from Opposition Leader Peter Dutton who said a contentious proposal to change Australia’s Constitution would do little to address crime rates in Aboriginal communities like Alice Springs. Speaking on ABC Radio National on April 14, Liddle said while care was needed to avoid politicising the issue, statistics on…


Labor Praises Leeser Resignation for All the Wrong Reasons

Commentary When your opponents start praising you, it’s worthwhile to take stock and examine your position. The shadow attorney-general and spokesman for Indigenous affairs, Julian Leeser, may well reflect on the accolades and bouquets coming his way from his political opponents after his resignation from the opposition front bench over its decision to oppose “The…


Hard to Reconcile Leeser’s Reasons for Resigning

Commentary When your opponents start praising you, it’s worth taking stock and examining your position. The shadow attorney-general and spokesman for Indigenous affairs, Julian Leeser, may well reflect on the accolades and bouquets coming his way from his political opponents after his resignation from the opposition front bench over its decision to oppose “The Voice.”…


The Questions That Must Be Asked Before We Vote on The Voice

Commentary With a referendum approaching, people will be asked to vote yes or no to the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament. In this article, I propose other questions worthy of consideration before the referendum, which in my opinion, have not received the attention they deserve. Like the president of the federal Young Liberals, Dimitry Chugg-Palmer,…


What Will Change With a Successful Voice Vote?

Commentary With a referendum approaching, people will be asked to vote yes or no to the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament. In this article, I propose other questions worthy of consideration before the referendum, but in my opinion, they have not received the attention they deserve. Like President of the Federal Young Liberals, Dimitry Chugg-Palmer,…


Voicing ‘No’ to Embedding Race Politics into the Australian Constitution

Commentary The Liberal Party, on April 5, decided to oppose Labor’s push to entrench The Voice in the Australian Constitution. The Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, told reporters that the Voice is “divisive, and it’s not going to deliver the outcomes to people on the ground.” Instead, the Coalition favours regional bodies to enhance effective communication…


ABC Defends Coverage of ‘The Voice’ Debate

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has stood by an interview it conducted with Indigenous leader Noel Pearson following the federal opposition’s decision not to back the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. On April 5, opposition leader Peter Dutton announced that MPs of the centre-right Liberal Party voted “overwhelmingly” to not to support The Voice. Sometime this…


The Voice Ensures Indigenous Communities Have Fair Input Into Policymaking: Law Expert

Passing the Indigenous Voice to Parliament is about fixing the discrimination of the past and a “moral question” of who Australia is as a country and what the people want it to be in the future, says constitutional law expert Shireen Morris from Macquarie University. “A Voice isn’t about erasing Indigenous diversity, it’s about empowering…


Former Minister Quits Liberal Party Over Voice Stance

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…