Liberal ex-Indigenous affairs spokesman Julian Leeser has suggested it would be pointless to amend the constitution to recognise First Nations peoples without also taking “practical” steps to “shift the dial on the ground”.
Leeser, who quit the Coalition frontbench this week because of the Liberals’ opposition to the Voice to Parliament, told Guardian Australia that symbolic constitutional recognition would not be “enough”.
“Uluru, with its dialogues and consultation, led to the view that Indigenous people wanted something that was not just symbolic in the constitution,” Leeser said.
“What’s the point of doing this if it’s not going to shift the dial on the ground?”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has sought to portray the government’s model as a “Canberra Voice”, and has instead proposed a series of regional voices that would be established by legislation rather than constitutional amendment.
He wants the referendum to only ask if First Nations peoples should be recognised in the constitution.
While Dutton has accused the government of not providing enough details about the Voice, his office this week did not respond to questions about his own proposal.
Asked during a visit to Alice Springs how he could justify his Voice stance when it had cost him both Leeser and former Indigenous Australians minister Ken Wyatt — who quit the party in protest — Dutton said: “Well, I mean, you listen to the voice of Jacinta Price, you listen to the voice of Kerrynne Liddle, you listen to many Indigenous people that we’ve spoken to in this community.”
“There are plenty of Indigenous people in this country who are completely opposed to the Voice because they don’t believe that a Canberra voice is going to provide support to the local community here in Alice Springs, in Tennant Creek, in Katherine and elsewhere.”
Liddle, a South Australian senator and the Liberals’ only Indigenous federal parliamentarian, told The Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday she supports Dutton’s stance on the Voice.
While Dutton’s decision to oppose the Voice has been applauded by some conservative figures, it has also led to blistering attacks by some Indigenous leaders, including Noel Pearson, who accused the Liberal Party of a “Judas betrayal”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has vowed to hold a referendum asking Australians if they agree to alter the constitution in order to establish a “body [that] may make representations to the Parliament and the executive government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples”.
“The Parliament shall, subject to this constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures,” the draft constitutional amendment would say.
The Uluru Statement from the Heart calls for “the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the constitution”.
The Nationals confirmed in November that they would oppose the Voice.
It’s not that easy to unpick what exactly Dutton was told by ‘many Indigenous people that we’ve spoken to in this community’. Dutton is adament he is relaying their opposition to the Voice. After listening to the mayor of Alice Springs on the radio this morning I think Dutton is being sly and disingenuous. The indigenous people he mentions are, with very good reason, saying there are urgent problems that need to be addressed now in Alice Springs. The Voice, being some way off, cannot fix anything now, true enough. Dutton’s big lie is that supporting the Voice rules out taking action now to help Alice Springs. It’s a false dichotomy. And then he, and those like him, go further by insisting that all the current problems can be addressed by just carrying on as before.
There’s no certainty the Voice will deliver any radical or even incremental improvements, but it has to be worth a try after the many decades we’ve had of doing without and the results that has delivered; which includes the current crisis in Alice Springs.
The unnamed support for his position is also troublesome when elders in those same communities are prepared to come out and say he is misrepresenting them or didn’t speak to them. Littleproud has faced the same problem.
The disease is Chronic Political Deafness, with symptoms such as we see in Alice Springs and more widely elsewhere. So far there has been no cure for the disease, try as we may. Now a radical new treatment is proposed by the disease’s main sufferers: cure the deafness with a Voice! But some of those who have the disease have come to believe that it is good for them, they like it, they think it normal. So, we must force the cure on them; they will try to refuse it, try to spit it out, and we will hold their nose until they swallow. Some of them may be incurable, and will be put out to pasture, but most will, on listening, see the benefit, and thank us.
Unless it doesn’t work. But more of the same gets you more of the same – for certain.
The disease is much worse than Chronic Political Deafness.
In fact the sort of politics that Dutton is engaging in can generally only be heard by dogs.
There is zero point in listening to Dutton on this issue.
What we need is people who are credible debating on the ‘no’ side and I have to say Leeser is raising some of the concerns I have.
Those concerns have not been allayed by Anne Twomey saying the Voice won’t hold up decision making. It reenforces my view that it is largely symbolic and will likely be ignroed. If Albanese (and previously Morrison) refused to engage with even federal members of parliament and the States, then what hope does an advisory body have?
Meanwhile there is also the risk of delay as we can expect at least a few cases bringing taken to the High Court to clarify how it works given the massive amounts of ambiguity.
Where was Dutton’s concern for the people of Alice Springs (by the way Dutts, indigenous peoples live in places other than Alice Springs) for the 9 wasted years his Coalition was in government? He’s flown up there to sow division. True to form Dutton returns to his usual practice of race baiting.
The Voice comes from the Uluru Statement which comes from nation-wide consultation between and among all aboriginal individuals, groups and communities. Dutton knows this as well as I do, but speaks lies to those less familiar with the process for selfish political purposes. I find it hard to imagine a more slimey, repellent creature. He is the best that his party can find to lead them? Really? It can only be that the heart of the Liberal Party has died and is gangrenous.
It’s interesting watching Leeser support Dutton and argue the merits of his position whilst disagreeing with Dutton’s position so ardently he was prepared to resign. It very much reminds me of Bandt supporting Thorpe whilst also saying that The Greens’ was not undermining the Voice.
I don’t think anyone will argue with Julian Leeser that the Voice is enough. Obviously, “practical steps on the ground” are needed. The trouble is all the “practical steps” that have been tried so far have not had much effect on aboriginal disadvantage. We can only hope that the Voice can suggest steps that actually do make a difference.