Senator Price says voice “flawed in its foundation”
Federal Parliament has wrapped up its final sitting day ahead of next month's indigenous voice to parliament referendum. The government insists a "yes" vote on the October the 14th will set the nation on a path towards greater respect for Australia’s first nations while the opposition says it's a proposal built on lies.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 We haven't really seen a whole lot of new ideas, a whole lot of new arguments being
00:06 put forward in this debate. But as has been the case for much of the last week or so,
00:11 it has been an opportunity for both the supporters of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament proposal
00:17 and the opponents of it to try to hone their arguments ahead of that final push to polling
00:22 day on the 14th of October. The Prime Minister was peppered with questions today, along with
00:28 his Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, as they have been all week, I should
00:32 point out, on the merits of this proposal. The Coalition, who remain opposed to it, albeit
00:38 with a couple of its own members arguing in favour of this Indigenous Voice to Parliament,
00:44 throwing questions at senior government members about the merits of the proposal, exactly
00:49 what sort of power an Indigenous Voice to Parliament would have, and repeatedly getting
00:54 very much the same responses from the government that the scope, the powers of this Indigenous
00:59 advisory body will be something sorted out by Parliament after the referendum, if indeed
01:05 there is a yes vote. That it's the principle of enshrining such a body in the nation's
01:10 founding document, the Constitution, that is up for debate ahead of the poll on the
01:15 14th of October. Anthony Albanese seized upon the fact that today saw the end of the long
01:22 walk to Canberra. AFL legend Michael Long finishing his walk here to the nation's capital,
01:28 raising awareness of this policy. Indeed, Anthony Albanese joined him in the latter
01:33 stages of that walk here in the nation's capital this morning. He said that Michael Long has
01:40 brought a great deal of respect to this debate and that people should be looking at his approach,
01:46 his attitude in how they are going forward over the next couple of weeks or so while
01:50 those final bits of campaigning are progressing. He took to his feet in question time today
01:55 to again outline why he thinks this is a good idea and why the opposition is wrong.
02:02 This is about recognition of First Nations people in our Constitution. It's an advisory
02:08 group whose only power will be the power of its ideas. The only power will have us the
02:14 power of its ideas. It has no right of veto, has no capacity to direct the government or
02:21 to direct the parliament. The primacy of parliament is there.
02:26 And Matthew, one of the lead no campaigners delivered a speech today.
02:31 Jacinta Bryants, the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, appeared at the National Press
02:35 Club again outlining her opposition to this proposal. She says that as a proud Indigenous
02:40 woman she wants to see the situation for Australia's Indigenous population improve. She wants to
02:47 see greater outcomes in areas such as health, such as education. But she does not believe
02:52 that an extra layer of bureaucracy is the answer here. And again casting doubt on exactly
02:57 how a voice to parliament would work. She faced some pretty interesting questions
03:03 from members of the press gallery who were present at the National Press Club. She made
03:10 some comments along the lines of that she doesn't believe colonisation is continuing
03:14 to have a legacy when it comes to Australia's Indigenous populations, or a bad detrimental
03:20 legacy that is. She has also said that she believes the tone of the debate has been quite
03:29 damning, quite critical of people on the no side of this campaign, saying that she has
03:34 been subjected to some quite outrageous abuse, even having her personal phone number put
03:39 on social media and allowing people to abuse her directly. But she is saying that at its
03:46 heart this is a situation or this is a campaign that from the yes side of the equation has
03:51 been built on lies, that there is a lot of spin being put out there into the Australian
03:56 community and that the situation facing Australian voters is whether or not they want to allow
04:02 parliament to hive off some of its own powers to an Indigenous body that many people won't
04:09 actually have much say over.
04:12 It is not for us to initiate a mechanism for a transfer of constitutional power to an entity
04:19 controlled by a handful of individuals than relegating an entire group of Australians
04:26 based on racial heritage to this entity. My hope is that after October 14, after defeating
04:38 this voice of division, we can bring accountability to existing structures.
04:44 That's the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians, Jacinta Nampagipa-Price at the
04:48 National Press Club earlier today. So while this is the final parliamentary sitting day
04:52 ahead of the referendum, it doesn't mean that we're suddenly going to not hear much about
04:56 this campaign. It just means that those arguments aren't going to be happening here in the corridors
05:01 of power, rather out there in the community as both sides try to win over the public.
05:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]